On Sunday, September 4, 2022, the Vatican unveiled a tapestry depicting the late John Paul I hanging from the facade of St.
Andrew Medicini/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Andrew Medicini/AP
On Sunday, September 4, 2022, the Vatican unveiled a tapestry depicting the late John Paul I hanging from the facade of St.
Andrew Medicini/AP
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis beatified one of his predecessors, John Paul I, on Sunday.
The ceremony in St. Peter’s Square marked the last formal step in the Vatican before Italian Albino Luciani, who died 33 days after being elected pope, was made a saint.
“Pope John Paul could convey the Lord’s good intentions with a smile,” Francis said in his sermon.
Pope Francis said, “A happy, calm and smiling church closes its doors, hardens its heart, complains, holds grudges, looks angry, looks sad, feels nostalgic for the past. There is no such thing as a He said.
Francis then encouraged the people to pray to the newly beatified clergyman, “Get the smile of the soul for us.”
Last year, Francis approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Pope John Paul I. It was the recovery of a seriously ill 11-year-old girl in Buenos Aires, the home of the current Pope, in 2011. Candela Jarda said via video message at a Vatican press conference last week that she wanted to attend the ceremony but was unable to because she recently broke her leg while exercising at the gym.
For Luciani to be proclaimed a saint, another miracle following his beatification must be attributed to his intercession and recognized by the Vatican.
Seated under the canopy outside St. Peter’s Basilica, Francisco led the ceremony. The ceremony was punctuated by thunder, flashes of lightning and a downpour of rain prompting cardinals, bishops, choirs and thousands of lay people in the square. open the umbrella
But by the time the ceremony was over, the sun was shining and Francisco sat in the Popemobile and toured the square, waving to the crowd.
When he was elected pope on August 26, 1978, Luciani, 65, held one of the Church’s most prestigious positions, Patriarch of Venice. In that role, as in his previous role as bishop of northeastern Italy, Luciani issued a warning against corruption, including in the banking world.
In his short-lived pontificate that ended with the discovery of his body in his bedchamber in the Apostolic Palace, John Paul I soon established a simple and direct way of communicating with his followers in the speeches he gave Did. The stifling environment of the church hierarchy.
Those who campaigned for him to one day become a saint emphasize his deep spirituality and constant emphasis on the key Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity.
John Paul “lived without compromise,” said Francis, praising him as a gentle and humble pastor.
Luciani overcame “the temptation to be at the center of himself and the temptation to seek his own glory.”
The Vatican said John Paul died of a heart attack, but no autopsy was performed. The priest who was serving as secretary was said to have found him, but later admitted that John Paul was found dead by one of the nuns who brought him his usual morning coffee. .
At the time, Italy was undergoing a huge financial scandal involving someone with ties to the Vatican Bank, and suspicions that Luciani was poisoned, perhaps to root out wrongdoing, quickly emerged in the secular media. took root in
A book speculating on the circumstances surrounding his death sold millions of copies.
