In God's Name Read Online Free PDF Page B

between Church and State and most of all the Church’s preoccupation with material wealth, even more pertinent.
    In 1949, Luciani was made responsible for catechetics in preparation for the Eucharistic Congress that was taking place that year in Belluno. This, plus his own experiences of teaching, prompted his first venture in authorship, a small book embodying his views entitled
Catechsi in Briciole
(Crumbs from the Catechism).
    Catechism classes: possibly these are the earliest memory of most adult Catholics. Many theologians would dismiss them but it is precisely this stage of growth that the Jesuits refer to when they talk of ‘catching a child for life’. Albino Luciani was one of the best teachers of this subject the Church has had in this century. He had the simplicity of thought that comes only to the highly intelligent, and added to this was a genuine, deep humility.
    By 1958, Don Albino, as he was known by all, had a settled life. His mother and father were both dead. He paid frequent visits to his brother, Edoardo, now married and living in the family home, and to his sister, Antonia, also married and living in Trento. As Vicar-General of Belluno he had more than enough work to occupy him. For leisure there were his books. He had little interest in food, eating whatever was put in front of him. His main forms of exercise were cycling around his diocese or climbing the nearby mountains.
    This small, quiet man succeeded, apparently without trying, in having an extraordinary and lasting effect on people. Again and again as I talked to those who knew him I could see a remarkable change happen within the person recalling Albino Luciani. Their faces would soften, quite literally relax. They would smile. They smiled a great deal as they recalled the man. They grew gentler before my eyes. He clearly touched something very deep within them. Catholics would call it the soul. Happily oblivious, Albino Luciani was already leaving a unique legacy as he cycled around Belluno.
    In the Vatican there was a new Pope, John XXIII, a man born at nearby Bergamo, which was also the birth-place of the man from whom Albino acquired his Christian name. John was busy shufflingepiscopal appointments. Urbani to Venice to replace himself, Carraro to Verona. In Vittorio Veneto there was a vacancy for a bishop. The Pope asked Bishop Bortignon for a name. The response made him smile. ‘I know him. I know him. He will do me fine.’
    Luciani, with that disarming humility that so many would later totally fail to comprehend, declared after his appointment as Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, ‘Well, I have taken a couple of train journeys with him, but he did most of the talking. I said so little he could not have got to know me.’
    The 46-year-old Luciani was ordained Bishop by Pope John in St Peter’s Basilica two days after Christmas, 1958.
    The Pope was fully aware of the pastoral activities of the young man from the north and he praised him warmly. Picking up a copy of
The Imitation of Christ
by Thomas à Kempis Pope John read aloud Chapter 23. In it the four elements that bring peace and personal liberty are quoted:
     
My son, try to do another’s will rather than your own. Always choose to have less rather than more. Always choose the lowest place and to be less than everyone else. Always long and pray that the Will of God may be fully realized in your life. You will find that the man who does all this walks in the land of peace and quietness.
     
    Before his ordination, Luciani had written of the coming event in a letter to Monsignor Capovilla, the Pope’s private secretary. One phrase he used strikingly demonstrates how closely he was already attempting to lead a life that embraced the ideals of Thomas à Kempis, ‘Sometimes the Lord writes his works in dust’.
    The first time the congregation gathered to hear their new bishop in Vittorio Veneto, he elaborated on this theme:
     
With me the Lord uses yet again his old system. He takes