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1978: With John Paul II, a new era began for the church
archived from: 2008-09-29
by: FATHER FRANK D. ALMADE

For the first time since 1605, the Catholic Church would have three popes reign in one year, 1978. The completely unexpected death of Pope John Paul I on Sept. 28 shocked the world. At the funeral Mass for the pope on Oct. 4, Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri said, “He passed as a meteor which unexpectedly lights up the heavens and then disappears, leaving us amazed and astonished.”

In the days after Sept. 28, rumors circulated in Rome regarding discrepancies in the Vatican’s account of the events surrounding John Paul I’s death. There were conflicting statements on who found the pope’s body, when and where he was found, what he had been reading that night and whether an autopsy could be carried out.

(A digression: With the death of the pope, one cardinal was experiencing schadenfreude — a bit of satisfaction from the misfortune of another. John Wright, former bishop of Pittsburgh and prefect of the Clergy Congregation, had been in a Boston hospital during the conclave that elected John Paul I. Now back in Rome, Cardinal Wright would indeed vote in a papal election — from a wheelchair. He was assisted by his young aide, Msgr. Donald Wuerl, who was only one of three non-cardinals permitted behind the doors inside the conclave.)

Of more impact on the cardinals preparing to meet in conclave for the second time in six weeks was the question, what was John Paul I’s health when they elected him. Most would have supposed a 10-year or longer reign upon electing a 65-year-old. The health of the next pope would be important. Could they replicate another smiling pope? And was this the moment to seriously consider someone from outside Italy for the papacy?

These were the questions facing the cardinals as they entered the Sistine Chapel on Oct. 14. At a time before the Internet, the cardinals had only days to size up one another before the voting. The same two Italian cardinals as in the first 1978 conclave received a significant number of votes early — conservative Giuseppe Siri and moderate Giovanni Benelli. Italian papers later reported that Benelli came within nine votes of the two-thirds plus one needed for election. But the two canceled each other out and plateaued.

Into this deadlock respected Cardinal Franz Konig of Vienna proposed another candidate, his neighbor from Poland, Karol Jozef Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow. Rallying behind the vigorous 58-year-old Cardinal Wojtyla were two Poles who knew him well, Cardinals Stefan Wyszynski of Warsaw and John Krol of Philadelphia. American cardinals were familiar with Wojtyla from his tour of U.S. cities (including Pittsburgh) only two years earlier, and so supported Wojtyla. So did many of the Third World’s cardinals. The four and a half century Italian grip on the papacy was broken.

After two days of balloting, Wojtyla accepted his election with these words: “With obedience in faith to Christ, my Lord, and with trust in the mother of Christ and the church, in spite of great difficulties, I accept.” To honor his three predecessors, and signal his support for Vatican II, he took the name John Paul II. (Later, there would be conjecture that Wojtyla would have preferred to take the name “Stanislaus,” his martyred 11th century predecessor as bishop of Krakow.)

When Wojtyla’s name was announc-ed from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the crowd gasped. Who was this new pope? John Paul II broke another precedent and delivered a brief talk in Italian:

“Praised be Jesus Christ! Dear brothers and sisters, we are still all very saddened by the death of the very dear Pope John Paul I. And now the most eminent cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They called him from a far-away country — far, but always near in the communion of faith and the Christian tradition. I was afraid in receiving this nomination, but I did it in the spirit of obedience to our Lord and with total trust in his mother, the most holy Madonna. I don’t know if I can express myself well in your — in our — Italian language. But if I make a mistake, you will correct me!”

And at that point John Paul II did make a tiny mistake in the language (“corigerete” instead of “correggerete”), which endeared him to the mostly Italian audience. That would be only the first of thousands of crowds that would warm to the Polish pope.

In the months and years ahead, the church would come to know what Konig, Wyszynski and Krol knew about Wojtyla. Brilliant student and philosopher, actor, published poet and playwright, quarry laborer, skier and hiker, fluent in eight languages, mystic with intense devotion to the Blessed Mother, childhood friend of Jews and pastor to young people, survivor of Nazism and Communism, Karol Wojtyla would draw upon these and many, many more gifts during his 27-year pontificate.

But that was in the future.

For now, the church and the world were beginning to take its measure of this new pope. Tens of thousands of Poles wept in the streets and streamed into churches to give thanks to God and the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. Moscow and Washington, First World and Third World, communist and capitalist politicians in that Cold War era scrambled to interpret what this “foreign” new leader of the church would mean to them.

The pope confirmed that he would be inaugurated at a Mass, like John Paul I, not crowned. In his homily that day, he proclaimed, “Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ.”

A new era in the Catholic Church had begun.

Father Almade is administrator of the Catholic Community of Sharpsburg.

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