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 Year
of the Three Popes
The year
1978 will long be remembered as the year of the three popes. The not
unexpected death of Pope Paul VI on August 6th, 1978, was followed
on August 26th by the election of the "Smiling Pope," John Paul I.
Reigning only 33 days, the length in years of Our Lord's earthly
life, he died in his sleep of a heart attack on September 28th. Only
a few weeks later on October 16th, 1978, the College of Cardinals
elected Karol Cardinal Wojtyła, Archbishop of Krakow, Poland, as the
first non-Italian Pope since Adrian VI (1522-1523). His pontificate
has been one of the most remarkable in history. Both its length
and
its accomplishments has set the course of the Church for decades, if
not for centuries.
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Pope Paul VI (1963-1978)
Giovanni Battista Montini was born on September
26th, 1897 in Concesio, 8km. (5 miles) from Brescia, in the Lombardi
region of northern Italy. Ordained to the priesthood at Brescia on
May 29th, 1920, he undertook further studies in Rome, including the
Gregorian University. From 1924 until his ordination as archbishop
of Milan on December 12th, 1954, he served the Secretariate of State
of the Holy See in various capacities, including a 17 year tenure
(1937-1954) as Undersecretary of State during the pontificate of
Pope Pius XII, with whose own career he was closely associated. Pope
John XXIII elevated him to the College of Cardinals on December 15,
1958. he succeeded this greatly beloved Pope as Supreme pontiff on
June 21st 1963, taking the name of the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Acts of His Pontificate
Memories of Paul VI
(Jacques Martin)
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Pope John Paul I (Aug.-Sep. 1978)
Albino Luciani was born on October 17th, 1912 in Forno de Canale.
This small town is called today Canale d'Agordo, and is located 29
km. (18 miles) from Belluno in the province of Veneto, Italy, in
which Venice is also to be found. He was ecucated in the minor (high
school) and major (college) seminaries of the diocese of Belluno and
ordained to the priesthood on July 7, 1935, later receiving a
doctorate in sacred theology (S.T.D.) from the Pontifical Gregorian
University in Rome. He returned to the diocese to serve as seminary
vice-rector from 1937 to 1947, also teaching in the areas of
dogmatic and moral theology, canon law and sacred art. From 1947 he served
as vicar general of the diocese, until his ordination as bishop of Vittorio Venuto on December 27th 1958. Bishop Luicani
participated in all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council
(1962-1965), and on December 15th, 1969 was appointed Archbishop and
Patriarch of Venice. Pope Paul VI made him a cardinal on March 5,
1973. On being elected to succeed Pope Paul as Supreme Pontiff on
August 26, 1978, he took the names of his immediate predecessors,
John XXIII and Paul VI, the first Pope in history to do so.
While Pope John Paul I delivered 19 addresses and was noted for
his good humor, especially with children, no significant papal acts
are attributed to his pontificate.
Urbi et Orbi
Message
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Pope John Paul II (1978-2005)
Karol Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, Poland (near
Krakow) on May 18, 1920. In 1938 he became a student of theatre and
poetry in the university of Krakow, but had to undertake manual
labor in a stone quarry and chemical plant when the Nazis invaded
Poland at the beginning of World War II. In 1942 he began secret
studies for the priesthood in an "underground" seminary of the
Archbishop of Krakow and was ordained to the priesthood on November
1, 1946. After ordination he was sent to Rome to complete doctoral
studies at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). He then
undertook a brief parish career, combining pastoral work with the
attainment of a second doctorate at the Catholic University of
Lublin, to which he was assigned to teach ethics in 1954. On
Septemeber 28th, 1958 he was ordained to the episcopacy as the
Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow, to which See he succeeded as Archbishop
on January 13, 1964. As Auxiliary and then Archbishop he
participated in all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council. Pope
Paul VI made him a Cardinal on June 26, 1967. After the death of
Pope Paul he was an elector in the conclave that chose Pope John
Paul I, whom he succeeded as Pope on October 16, 1978, taking his
name.
Urbi et Orbi Message
Poland to Rome: Deep
Pastoral Spirituality
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