The Pope who called God "a loving mother" beatified by Pope Francis
Albino Luciani distanced himself early on from the triumphalist pomp of his church, which still calls herself holy. When he became Bishop of Vittorio Veneto in 1958, he added only one word to his coat of arms: Humilitas, humility. He stuck to this when Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop and Patriarch of Venice in 1969. And he, the son of an anti-clerical Italian socialist, even appointed him Cardinal in 1973. On 26 August 1978, Albino Luciani became Pope himself. "God forgive you for what you have done to me," he criticises the cardinals who elected him in the fourth ballot with 99 out of 111 votes.
John Paul I is the first Pope to give himself a double name as a tribute to his predecessors. Even if, as he modestly emphasises, he lacks the goodness of heart of Pope John XXIII as well as the erudition of Pope Paul VI. The reformers hope for him - and he immediately sets the tone. He rejects the noble-elitist tradition of his predecessors to be crowned with the Tiara, which had fallen out of use after the Second Vatican Council. Moreover, he abolishes the "pluralis majestatis" - the Royal plural, by saying "I" and no longer using the "we", which is perceived as presumptuous.
The new Pontiff reaches people with straightforward speeches, wins them over with his smile. The fact that Professors complain that he preaches like a village priest, even though he has a doctorate in theology, does not irritate him. The members of the Swiss Guard also breathe a sigh of relief: They don't have to get down on their knees in front of him every day.
But this "Vatican spring" lasted only 33 days in the autumn of 1978. On the morning of 29 September, the news of the Pope's death shocked the world. A heart attack, probably before midnight, had put an end to his life - Pope John Paul I was only 65 years old. And then the Vatican has to admit that it first tried to cover up who found the 263rd Pope in Church history dead that morning. Not, as Radio Vatican initially claimed, his Irish private secretary John Magee, but Sister Vicenza Taffarel, who wanted to bring him a cup of tea. A woman in the flesh in the bedroom and at the bedside of His Holiness!
The lie of the Curia and the fact that the Vatican and relatives refuse to have the body autopsied immediately lead to speculation up to and including conspiracy myths. Did the Mafia commit murder in the Apostolic Palace of all places? Did the Pope fall victim to the Red Guards, who had already killed the top Christian Democrat politician Aldo Moro? The revenge of a Cardinal whose defeat in the conclave caused him to go on a violent rampage or corrupt Vatican bankers fearing for their jobs? After all, in almost 2000 years of church history, a dozen popes have been poisoned, strangled or stabbed to death.
But the answer to the question of the cause of death leads back to a bitterly poor family in Forno di Canale in the northern Italian province of Belluno. Even at an altitude of almost 1000 metres above sea level, the little Albino only has shoes in winter. He is considered a weak child but is ordained a priest at the age of 22. In 2017, almost 40 years later, Renato Buzzonetti, the Papal personal physician, will make public the diagnosis that Pope John Paul I was already a sick man when he was elected: "Coronary heart disease due to arteriosclerosis". One of his secretaries saw him "collapsed under a burden too great for his slender shoulders and under the weight of his immense loneliness."
There is no time for an epoch-making Encyclical or popular pastoral tours for this Pope. However, it is enough to sympathetically correct the image of God often handed down by the male-dominated Catholic Church and by art, of a bearded old man enthroned far from man above the clouds. As a personal credo, Albino Luciani confesses his conviction that God is of course "a father to mankind - but even more ('ancora più') a loving mother".
The full text of the ANGELUS Sunday 10 September 1978 referred to in the text
At Camp David, in America, Presidents Carter and Sadat and Prime Minister Begin are working for peace in the Middle East. All men are hungry and thirsty for peace, especially the poor, who pay more and suffer more in troubled times and in wars; for this reason they look to the Camp David meeting with interest and great hope. The Pope, too, has prayed, had prayers said, and is praying that the Lord may deign to help the efforts of these politicians.
I was very favourably impressed by the fact that the three Presidents wished to express their hope in the Lord publicly in prayer. President Sadat's brothers in religion are accustomed to say as follows: "there is pitch darkness, a black stone and on the stone a little ant; but God sees it, and does not forget it". President Carter, who is a fervent Christian, reads in the Gospel; "Knock, and it will be opened to you; ask, and it will be given you. Even the hairs of your head are all numbered." And Premier Begin recalls that the Jewish people once passed difficult moments and addressed the Lord complaining and saying: "You have forsaken us, you have forgotten us!" "No!"—He replied through Isaiah the Prophet—"can a mother forget her own child? But even if it should happen, God will never forget his people".
Also we who are here have the same sentiments; we are the objects of undying love on the part of God. We know: he has always his eyes open on us, even when it seems to be dark. He is our father; even more he is our mother. He does not want to hurt us, He wants only to do good to us, to all of us. If children are ill, they have additional claim to be loved by their mother. And we too, if by chance we are sick with badness, on the wrong track, have yet another claim to be loved by the Lord.
With these sentiments I invite you to pray together with the Pope for each of us, for the Middle East, for Iran, and for the whole world.
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