A few days ago, I posted a few thoughts on how I believe Pope John Paul II’s papacy was a fulfillment of the papacy of his predecessor, Pope John Paul I, Papa Luciani.
Today I would offer for your reflection thoughts that Blessed John Paul II shared with the people of the diocese of Vittorio Veneto during his visit there in June, 1985, in which he paid tribute to Papa Luciani.
This is my translation of the official Italian text.
On this pause in my new pilgrimage in Veneto, I am highly grateful to give homage to my most beloved and venerated predecessor, John Paul I and to you, dear Vittorians who enjoyed his pastoral and human care.
His gentle figure is always alive in my heart. It accompanies me always in my travels as universal pastor, which I undertook starting at the point at which he began.
Time passes quickly. But the ineffable memory of the call of your old bishop to succeed Paul VI, on the splendid evening of August 26, the day dedicated in Poland to the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa remains. The visions of his month long pontificate have not been erased, (a month during which John Paul I knew how to cast an aura, all around him and the Holy See, a universal pleasantness); nor does the grief that rose from his unexpected death that shattered the auspicious expectations of a long and rich pontificate….
In this manner, John Paul I revived in all of his natural freshness the ecclesial patrimony inherited from the two Fathers of the Council: John XXIII and above all Paul VI. …. As I said in my homily in Belluno on August 26, 1979, “The greatness of this Pope is inversely proportionate to the length of his service on the chair of Peter.”
Well said.
If you read Italian, you can read the entire text at: Speech of John Paul II to the faithful of the diocese of Vittorio Veneto in the piazza dedicated to Papa Luciani.
Yes, I believe it is true….. the greatness of Papa Luciani is magnified by the brevity of his time as pope. Time will bear this out. We have only to wait
