John Paul I
John Paul I (1912–78). Pope from 26 Aug. to 28 Sept. 1978. He was made bishop of Vittorio Veneto in 1958, and patriarch of Venice in 1969. He was made cardinal in 1973. He was elected pope on the third ballot and was acclaimed as ‘God's candidate’, and as one who would develop Vatican II while conserving the tradition. He died of a heart attack while reading papers in bed. Subsequent theories (building in part on the absence of an autopsy) claimed that he was poisoned because of his determination to clarify the suspect dealings of the Vatican Bank. He wrote Catechesis in Easy Stages (1949) and Illustrissimi (1978), letters addressed to figures in the past. The hope that the papacy would continue to develop the vision of Vatican II and would be committed, not just in rhetoric but in reality, to a gospel of commitment to the poor, faded under his successor: see JOHN PAUL II.
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John Paul I