His 33-day reign was one of the shortest in papal history: The short-lived pontiff John Paul I, who died in 1978, was beatified Sunday in Rome by Pope Francis.
Thousands of people are expected in St. Peter’s Square to witness the canonization of the “smiling pope,” who was already declared “venerable” in 2017 and the step before becoming a “saint.”
The Beatification Mass takes place in St. Peter’s Square where thousands of people are expected. AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
The last Italian pope, Albino Luciani, popular and close to the people, succeeded Paul VI in August 1978 at the age of 65. But he died of a heart attack 33 days and six hours later.
Conspiracy theories
The announcement of his death was surrounded by many contradictions and misinformation and fueled the theory of assassination by poison, as the new sovereign papacy wanted to regulate the affairs of the Church, especially financial fraud within the Vatican. Bank.
This “conspiracy hypothesis” was reinforced by “a disaster communication” from the Vatican at the time, AFP Christoph Henning, journalist and author of the book “Little Life of John Paul I” underlined. Like him, many experts have questioned this hypothesis, believing it to be based on a collection of coincidences rather than concrete elements.
The Miracle in Buenos Aires
Sister Margherita Marin, who assisted John Paul I in the papal residence, recalled a man who was “friendly to everyone.”
“He treated his colleagues with great respect and apologized for disturbing them. I have never seen him show patience with anyone,” the nun recalled during a press conference on Friday.
Acknowledgment of heroic virtue precedes a herald, which requires a miracle. A second miracle verified by the Vatican is “justified” and receives “saint” status. The miracle attributed to Albino Luciani was the unexplained healing of an 11-year-old girl who was dying in Buenos Aires in 2011, but was attributed to the prayers of a local priest who called on John Paul I.
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