Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

October 4, 2018, marked the 40th anniversary of Pope John Paul I’s funeral. His funeral is one of the few events in his pontificate whose date, time, locations, organizers, participants, guests, attendants, and order of events, everybody agrees on. In contrast, as will be explained later, there is hardly anything related to his death on which scholars of all kinds, distinguished members of the Vatican ranging from daily assistants to the pope to cardinals, non-Catholic clerics from all over the world, politicians of all types and nations, journalists, family members, or even plain curious or interested world citizens can agree. His mysterious death after only 33 days of papacy has generated a great amount of bestselling novels in many languages, an award winning best-selling investigative book on his supposed murder as well as many other scholarly and journalistic books on his life and death, all kinds of television programs, documentaries, and even feature films, the most famous one being The Godfather III. Stefania Falasca’s Papa Luciani, Cronaca di una Morte (November 2017), claims to finally have laid to rest the subject of whether the pope was murdered or not. According to Falasca, Pope John Paul I was not murdered but died of a heart attack, and she claims – based on Vatican documents finally rescued from their secret archives- that her conclusion is irrefutable. After reading Stefania Falasca’s book, Catholic journalist Hannah Brockhaus states that Falasca provides “conclusive evidence that his death was the result of a heart attack” (“New book reveals details of John Paul I’s death”). However, this article will prove that there is no conclusive evidence that he died of a heart attack, and, in addition, the newly revealed “evidence” by Falasca and the Vatican provides further proof that several Vatican members were involved in intentional misdeeds, as well as in several cover-ups that followed over many years. All these actions done by members of the Vatican point towards their probable involvement in the pontiff’s murder.

Department

World Languages and Cultures

Recommended Citation

Torner, Enrique. “The Mysterious Death of Pope John Paul I: A Reappraisal.” WAIS, January 2020, https://waisworld.org//modules/cms/files/wais/JohnPaulIdeathArticleFinal_69914_1.pdf.