Pope Francis has beatified John Paul I, the happy and humble pontiff known as “the smiling pope,” whose death after just 33 days as the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics sparked decades of speculation and rumor.
In a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, which marked the last formal step before canonization, Francis praised John Paul I’s short but joyous papacy.
“With a smile, Pope John Paul managed to communicate the goodness of the Lord,” he said during the mass.
“How beautiful is a church with a happy, serene, smiling face, that never closes doors, never hardens hearts, never complains or harbors resentment, never gets angry or impatient, never looks sad or suffers from nostalgia for the past “.
A man holds a photo of Pope John Paul I during the beatification ceremony. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP
Sitting under a canopy outside St Peter’s Basilica, Francis led the proceedings, which were punctuated by thunder, lightning and rain, prompting cardinals, bishops, the choir and thousands of grassroots faithful to open the umbrellas
Born Albino Luciani on October 17, 1912, in the northern Italian city of Canale d’Agordo, John Paul I became Patriarch of Venice, cardinal and then head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Luciani, who took the name John Paul after being elected pope on August 26, 1978, was found dead in his bed in his Vatican apartment on September 28 of that year.
Although the Vatican said John Paul died of a heart attack, it gave conflicting accounts of the circumstances in which his body was discovered.
Although he initially claimed to have been found by a priest acting as his secretary, he later acknowledged that he had been found dead by one of the nuns who used to bring him his morning coffee.
Given the huge financial scandal unfolding in Italy at the time and involving figures with ties to the Vatican bank, suspicions quickly took root in the secular media that John Paul might have been poisoned because he intended to ‘address the evils.
Books speculating about the circumstances of his death sold millions of copies.
John Paul’s biographer Christophe Henning said the rumors could be explained by the sudden nature of his death and the Vatican’s “calamitous communication” at the time. The absence of an autopsy to determine the cause of death has also helped fuel speculation.
But Henning told Agence France-Presse he had no doubt the pontiff had died of natural causes, adding that he was in “fragile health”.
Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content funded by third parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The short papacy of John Paul was characterized by his simple and direct way of addressing the faithful, a style markedly different from that of his more formal predecessors.
“We pray, in his own words: ‘Lord, take me as I am, with my flaws, with my shortcomings, but make me what you want me to be,'” Francis said.
The pope added that John Paul lived “without compromise” and also “overcame the temptation” to put himself “at the center or to seek glory”.
Francis advanced John Paul on the path to holiness last year after he credited him with interceding in the miraculous healing of a child in 2011.
The Vatican said the healing of the 11-year-old girl, Candela Giarda, took place in Buenos Aires, Francis’ birthplace. Giarda had suffered from acute brain inflammation, septic shock and other serious medical problems and doctors said she was close to death. But a local priest took “the initiative to invoke Pope Luciani,” the Vatican added, and he recovered.
Giarda, now 21, said at a press conference last week that she wanted to attend the ceremony but couldn’t because she broke her foot while working out at the gym.
Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press contributed to this report