Pope John Paul I will be blessed. Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree concerning the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God John Paul I (Albino Luciani).
The Holy Father, receiving Cardinal Marcello Semeraro in audience this morning, authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing a miracle of the former Pontiff: it is the healing, which took place on 23 July 2011 in Buenos Aires, of a 11-year-old girl with "severe acute inflammatory encephalopathy, refractory malignant state epilepticus, septic shock".
The little girl was now dying, she had a very serious clinical picture characterized by numerous daily epileptic seizures and a septic state of bronchopneumonia.
The initiative to invoke Pope Luciani was taken by the parish priest of the parish to which the hospital belonged. The Venetian Pontiff is therefore now close to beatification and now he is only waiting to know the date, which will be established by Pope Francis.
Born on October 17, 1912 in Forno di Canale (today Canale d'Agordo, in the Belluno area), and died on September 28, 1978 in the Vatican, Albino Luciani was Pope for only 33 days, one of the shortest pontificates in history.
The son of a socialist worker, Albino was ordained a priest in 1935 and in 1958 he was appointed bishop of Vittorio Veneto.
In the years in which the lawfulness of the contraceptive pill is being discussed, he has repeatedly expressed himself in favor of an openness by the Church on its use, having listened to many young families. After the release of the encyclical Humanae vitae, with which Paul VI declared the pill morally illicit in 1968, the bishop of Vittorio Veneto will promote the document, adhering to the magisterium of the Pontiff.
Paul VI at the end of 1969 appoints him patriarch of Venice and in March 1973 makes him cardinal.
Luciani, who chose the word "humilitas" for his episcopal coat of arms, is a pastor who lives soberly, close to the poor and the workers. He is uncompromising when it comes to the unscrupulous use of money against people, as demonstrated by his firmness on the occasion of an economic scandal in Vittorio Veneto involving one of his priests.
