How A Journalist (And Her Exceptional Book) Propelled Pope John Paul I’s Path To Sainthood

(REVIEW) Popes are famous for many different things. In the case of John Paul I, he’s best known for being pope for a mere 33 days.

It was a Vatican new release on the morning of Sept. 29, 1978, that made the shocking announcement: John Paul had died of a heart attack.

Born Albino Luciani, the former cardinal of Venice died at age 65 and remains the last Italian-born pontiff — still referred to in Italy as the “smiling pope” — followed by Polish St. John Paul II, German Benedict XVI and the current Pope Francis, born in Argentina after his family had emigrated there from Italy.

A 2017 book on the final days of former Pope John Paul I is now available in English. Photo via OSV Catholic Bookstore.

In the days and years that followed, John Paul I’s death became cloaked in a mystery — possible foul play — and cynicism that triggered plenty of conspiracy theories. Honestly, the journalism at the time did little to shed light on what happened and whether the Vatican’s account surrounding his death had somehow been false.

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The Vatican isn’t an easy place for a reporter to cover. It is an institution largely cloaked in secrecy, and journalists often have to rely on leaks to get stories. It is a place dominated by public events — where the pope makes news almost every time — but it is otherwise difficult unless you’ve been on the beat for a long time. It often takes special access for the truth to shine through.

It was just last month that a Washington Post news story helped shed light for American audiences on the conspiracy theories surrounding John Paul’s death and the Vatican’s announcement that he’s now on the path to sainthood. The story recalled how the notion of the pope’s possible murder came via a 1984 book, “In God’s Name,” which would go on to sell 6 million copies worldwide.

The book’s premise became accepted fact for most people. It was misinformation without the internet.

For example, the 1990 film “Godfather III” included a storyline where the pope is poisoned for his role in investigating the Vatican Bank, an allusion to Luciani.

A second book by British writer John Cornwell, “A Thief in the Night: The Death of John Paul I,” published in 1989 with some support from the Vatican, didn’t do enough to dispel those myths — although it did dismiss the notion that he had been killed.

This is how The Washington Post put it in that recent story regarding the end of John Paul’s papacy and possibility of sainthood:  

The questions swirled for years before British crime writer David Yallop published a book about the case and concluded that the church was surely covering up a murder. His theory was that John Paul I had been poisoned, struck down by the Vatican deep state just before he could reveal corruption at its highest levels.

Yallop’s 1984 book, “In God’s Name,” offered scant sourcing or evidence. But it gained popular power by piggybacking on a real Vatican banking scandal — one that involved a Masonic lodge and an Italian banker who’d died under mysterious circumstances. In Yallop’s telling, John Paul I’s death was a part of that story, because behind the scenes, he had trained his eye on the financial corruption, putting the Curia on edge. Yallop named six people who stood to gain if the pope was suddenly removed. One was Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, a burly American who headed the Vatican Bank.

In the book’s most memorable scene, Yallop describes how a dazed Marcinkus had been spotted inside the Vatican walls at an unusually early hour on the morning John Paul I’s body was discovered.

“Marcinkus had the motive and the opportunity,” Yallop wrote.

The Vatican called the claims “absurd.” But the book became, in effect, the second account of how John Paul I died, after the Vatican’s own.

The Vatican tried for years to dispel the rumors, but it wasn’t until a book by Italian journalist Stefania Falasca called “Papa Luciani: Cronaca di una morte” was released in 2017 that the real account began to emerge. The book, based on Falasca’s access to never-before-seen documents, is a wonderful mix of medical reports and interviews with people closest to the pope at the time of his death and is now available in English on Amazon under the title, “The September Pope: The Final Days of John Paul I,” translated by Catholic publisher Our Sunday Visitor.

How did Falasca get such unfettered access? Falasca found herself in a very unique position as both reporter and Vatican insider. She’s a writer for Avvenire, an Italian daily newspaper based in Milan that serves as the mouthpiece for the conference of Italian bishops. She also currently serves as the vice postulator for John Paul I’s cause of canonization. Falasca’s job is to put forth the pros and cons of someone who is being considered for sainthood.

In the 248-page book, Falasca does a meticulous job — like that of an investigative journalist — of piecing together what happened during the pope’s 33 days at the Vatican. The final 100 pages are a treasure trove of documents — many of them reproduced in the book for everyone to see.

Here’s how The Washington Post put Falasca’s discoveries into context, even interviewing her about her discoveries:

Falasca’s research has helped fill five massive volumes used by the Vatican to analyze nearly every facet of John Paul I’s life and death.

She says her goal is “safeguarding” the realities of his life. She can scarcely hide her contempt for the narratives that came before, calling them “noir literature,” or tabloid trash, and burying her head in her hands when asked to respond to past theories, including those raised by Cornwell.

“This is the longest-running fake news of the 20th century,” said Falasca, sitting in an office several blocks from St. Peter’s Square.

Falasca’s opinion is shared by the Vatican, whose official news arm recently said her research, summarized in a 2017 book published in Italian, “definitively” closed the case. Falasca presents John Paul I’s death as an unanticipated, unpreventable tragedy.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book — reading the original version in Italian over Christmas — for its behind-the-scenes aspects. For example, the book shares the pope’s final words to his private secretary John Magee: “Thank you. Good night! See you tomorrow if God wants!” It was both prescient and sad knowing what comes next.  

The book reports that the following morning, Luciani’s body was found not by Magee, like the Vatican had initially stated, but by two nuns named Vincenza Taffarel and Margherita Marin. It had been that initial Vatican fib regarding who had found the body that had helped to unleash the first wave of conspiracy theories.  

Falasca, meanwhile, quotes medical records that reveal the pope had suffered a blood clot three years earlier in his left eye and had family members die suddenly in the past. The book notes that John Paul died of a heart attack.   

This past November, the Vatican announced that John Paul will be beatified in September 2022 after a miracle was attributed to him, bringing him one step closer to sainthood. For John Paul to be made a saint, one more miracle needs to be attributed to him.

This book is a must-read in 2022. Indeed, the biggest reason John Paul was ever put on such a path — and able to progress — is because of this fine book. It has also helped to dispel a myth that has been around for over four decades, proving it’s never too late for the truth to come out.

Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.