Today marks the day 35 years ago when Albino Luciani was elected Pope John Paul I. As my readers know so well, this was a day etched in my memory as I was there for it all that day.
Perhaps it is my own reading into things, but I really do see Papa Luciani’s papacy actualized through the papacies of John Paul II, Benedict, and Francis. I personally have no doubt that Luciani began what his three successors have completed or are completing.
Luciani’s restoration of the Church is being accomplished. (Actually, it isn’t his restoration, but rather, the restoration envisioned by the Second Vatican Council. His focus on catechesis – and thus evangelization of the peoples, a new evangelization for which he called the day he died – and his initial emphasis on the three virtues of faith, hope and charity, have taken 35 years to bring into the Church’s continual consciousness and parlance.
Luciani called for renewal. He asked us to know the faith, to live lives of faith, hope and charity. Benedict was the pope depicting faith; John Paul II depicted hope, and Francis depicts charity.
May God richly bless the Church Luciani lived and died serving. May Papa Luciani pray for us now and always!
