Articles

Semplicità nella verità, il sigillo di papa Luciani

Stefania Falasca, vice-president of the Vatican Foundation John Paul I, a few months before the beatification scheduled for September 4, recalls the figure and work of the late Pope.

Antonino Piccione-September 14, 2022-Reading time: 3 minutes
John Paul I

Testo originale del articolo in inglese qui

"The closeness, the simplicity, the simplicity, the power and the insistence on the mercy and mercy of Jesus: these are the treatises coming out of his teaching, which more than 40 years ago aroused attraction and today is more than ever current.". Stefania Falasca, vice-president of the Giovanni Paolo I Vatican Foundation, thus recalls the figure and the work of the late Pope, in view of his beatification scheduled for next September 4.

The occasion was offered by the meeting that the ISCOM Association promotes with Vatican specialists and information professionals interested in the current affairs of the Catholic Church: a working lunch, in a place two steps from San Pietro in Rome, which this morning was attended by a trio of journalists.

Falasca, Vaticanist and writer, since 2006, the year in which the diocesan investigation was concluded, has been working as vice-postulator for the cause of beatification of John Paul I, together with the Salesian postulators Don Pasquale Liberatore and Monsignor Enrico Dal Covolo, and subsequently with Cardinal Beniamino Stella, who are still in office today. He has produced a long and impressive study of the documentary sources on Albino Luciani, which, during the ISCOM meeting, has led him to highlight the "evangelical simplicity" of the Pope, and his ability to communicate to all "the support of the Vangelo", "the support of the Vangelo". , "nella coincidenza assoluta tra ciò che ha insegnato e ciò che ha vissuto".

It has been a journey of about 15 years, with a research that has involved more than 70 archives in different places, from the deep historical and historical-graphical content.

Soon after his death - Falasca observes - it has been professor Vittore Branca, who was close to Luciani during the years of his patriarchate in Venice, to point out on the pastoral care of the Pope, his great simplicity.
A Pope faithful to the doctrine of St. Francis de Sales, a saint who was very dear to him since his adolescence, when he read Philothea and the Treatise on the Love of God. Luciani was the shepherd nourished by human wisdom, who lived all the evangelical virtues. A shepherd who precedes and lives in his church by example, without any separation between the spiritual life and the exercise of government.

On the role of the Church in the service of humanity, it is worth remembering the words pronounced by Luciani himself in the omelia at the beginning of his pontificate (September 3, 1978): "The role of the Church in the service of humanity".The Church, a humble messenger of the Gospel to all the peoples of the earth, contributes to create a climate of justice, fraternity, solidarity and hope, without which the world could not live.".
Closer to the pain of the people, "a Church", Falasca concludes, "not self-referential, that affirms its roots in that treasure never forgotten which is the ancient Church, without human triumphs, that lives from the reflected light of Christ, close to the teachings of the great Fathers to whom the Council had oriented it". 

The Second Vatican Council's eredit constitutes, therefore, the inspiration and the trace of an effective pontificate - a heart attack put an end to Luciani's life, according to the reconstruction of the history and the clinical documentation, as well as of the depositions acquired during the process - and at the same time rigorously of actuality. This is eloquently attested by the six "-".vogliamo"In the radio message Urbi et orbi pronounced in Latin by Pope John Paul I on August 27, 1978, the day after his election.

Falasca reminds them: "We want to continue in the continuity of the legacy of the Second Vatican Council (...) the impulse of renewal and of life"; "We want to maintain the great discipline of the Church (...) both in the exercise of the evangelical virtues and in the service of the poor, the humble, the indifferent (...). We want to remind the whole Church that her first duty is evangelization (...) We want to continue the ecumenical commitment with attention to all that can promote unity (...) We want to continue with peace and strength in that serene and constructive dialogue that Pope Paul VI has established as the foundation and program of his pastoral action (...). Finally, we want to incorporate all the initiatives that can safeguard and increase peace in a troubled world".

These are the priorities that have nourished the thirty-four days of a pontifical session dedicated to episcopal collegiality, to the service of ecclesial poverty, to the search for the unity of Christians, to interreligious dialogue and with the contemporary world, in favor of justice and peace.Such are the prospects that today resound with clarity, according to the Vice President of the Vatican Foundation Giovanni Paolo I: "These six lines that we would like to implement help to highlight a Pope as a point of reference in the history of the universal Church.
In the light of the letters of the private archives, of the testimonies and of the interventions of the pontificate, it is now easier to understand the guidelines of the magisterium of Albino Luciani for a Council Church close to the people and to its seven charities.."

The authorAntonino Piccione

La Brújula Newsletter Leave us your email and receive every week the latest news curated with a catholic point of view.
Banner advertising
Banner advertising