A NEW SAINT- THE SMILING POPE

 

Tomorrow, Sept. 4, Pope Francis will beatify POPE JOHN PAUL I. He will be the  fourth 20th-century pope to be beatified in the last dozen years. This pope, known as the “smiling pope,” served for just 33 days in 1978. He was the last Italian born pope, breaking the line of 45 popes, over 456 years.

John Paul I was born Albino Luciani in 1912 in the town of Canale d'Argordo in northern Italy’s Belluno province.  Albino was a restless child. In 1922, aged 10, he was awestruck when a Capuchin friar came to his village to preach the Lenten sermons. From that moment, he decided that he wanted to become a priest and went to his father to ask for his permission. His father agreed and said to him: "I hope that when you become a priest you will be on the side of the workers, for Christ Himself would have been on their side".

 Albino entered the minor seminary of Feltre in 1923, where his teachers found him "too lively", and later went on to the major seminary of Belluno. During his stay at Belluno, he attempted to join the Jesuits, but was denied by the seminary's rector. 

After ordination in 1935, he served as a curate in his native Forno de Canale before becoming a professor and the vice-rector of the Belluno seminary in 1937. He taught dogmatic and moral theology, canon law, and sacred art. In 1941, he started to work on a Doctorate of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.  

In 1947, he was named chancellor to the bishop of Belluno, and was himself nominated for the position of bishop several times, but he was passed over each time due to his poor health, stature, and resigned appearance.

He was then appointed a Supernumerary Privy Chamberlain of His Holiness, the most junior class of papal prelate.

In 1954, he was named the vicar general for the Belluno diocese and on December 15,1958, he was appointed  Bishop of Vittorio Veneto by Pope (St.) John XXIII. He received his episcopal consecration later that month from Pope  (St.) John XXIII himself. In 1973, he was made a Cardinal by Pope (St.) Paul VI.

In August 1973, at the death of Pope (St.) Paul VI, Cardinal Luciani was elected pope on the 4th ballot. At his election, when he was asked by Cardinal Jean-Marie Villot  (Lyon, France) if he accepted his election, he replied, "May God forgive you for what you have done", but accepted the election. After his election, when Cardinal Sin of Manila paid him homage, the new pope said: "You were a prophet, but my reign will be a short one".

Known for his great humility, he  said in a Sept. 23 homily at Saint John Lateran: “Although already for twenty years I have been Bishop at Vittorio Veneto and at Venice, I admit that I have not yet ‘learned the job’ well. It is God’s law that one cannot do good to anyone if one does not first of all wish him well… I can assure you that I love you, that I desire only to enter into your service and to place the poor powers that I have, however little they are, at the disposal of all.”

He was the first pope to take two names. By doing so he honored his two immediate predecessors, Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, now both saints. 

St. John XXIII, the former Patriarch of Venice, had made him a bishop and St. Paul VI had named him the Patriarch of Venice and a cardinal. Pope  (St.) John Paul II said that his predecessor showed “not only to me but to the whole world, how to love, how to serve, how to labor and to suffer for the Church of Christ.”

“I have neither the ‘wisdom of the heart’ of Pope John, nor the preparation and culture of Pope Paul, but I am in their place. I must seek to serve the Church. I hope that you will help me with your prayers.” He captivated the whole world with his warmth and gentleness.  It was said the media in particular fell under his spell.  

 After he became pope, he had set six plans down which would dictate his pontificate: To renew the church through the policies implemented by Vatican II, to revise canon law, to remind the church of its duty to preach the Gospel, to promote church unity without watering down doctrine, to promote dialogue, and to encourage world peace and social justice.  Little did he know he was setting the stage for his successor, the great St. John Paul II.

On 29 September 1978, on what should have been the 35th day of his pontificate,  Pope John Paul I was found dead in his bed with reading material and a bedside lamp still lit. He had probably suffered  a heart attack the night before.

 While he was regarded as a skilled communicator and writer and orator, he will always be remembered as  “Il Sorriso di Dio” (The Smile of God).  

Pope Francis suggested offering a prayer to the new Blessed:

Let us pray to him, our father and our brother, and ask him to obtain for us “the smile of the soul,” a transparent smile that does not deceive, the smile of the soul. Let us pray, in his own words:

“Lord take me as I am, with my defects, with my shortcomings, but make me become what you want me to be”.  Amen  

                            (General Audience, 13 September 1978)