«WHEN Albino Luciani, having become Pope John Paul I in 1978, died in the same month as his enthronement, no answer was forthcoming to the most elementary questions: What did he die from? What was his real character?

     «Usually these two questions went hand in hand. For example, people would say: “He was a poor man who died overwhelmed by the burden of the papacy”, or else, as Cornwell makes out today: “He let himself die because he did not feel capable of being Pope.”

     «Against these views, and along with many others, we affirm: “He was a martyr of the purification and renovation of the Church.” The difference is obvious, radical, fundamental.» The author of these statements is a Spanish priest, Father Jesus Lopez Saez, who has a licentiate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. He has followed David Yallop’s enquiry and developed his own accusations. In the very first pages of his book Se pedira cuenta, he writes «You will be held to account.» (1990) That says it all:

     «After almost three years of research, David Yallop wrote, in his book In the name of God (1984), that the precise circumstances attending the discovery of the body of John Paul I “eloquently demonstrate that the Vatican practised a disinformation campaign”. The Vatican told one lie after another: “Lies about little things, lies about big things. All these lies had but one purpose: to disguise the fact that Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I, had been assassinated.” Pope Luciani “received the palm of martyrdom because of his convictions”.»

     Father Jesus Lopez Saez had the courage to publish these very grave accusations despite being forbidden to do so by his bishop, the Bishop of Avila.

     «The review that published my first article on the death of John Paul I was forced to publish a public denial of this same article. And at the National Secretariat of Catechetics where I was in charge of the adult catechetics, they came to tell me, “Not a word more.”

     «Furthermore, we know from different sources that Sister Vincenza, the nun who discovered the body of John Paul I, was forced to keep silent by the Secretariat of State. “But the world must know the truth”, said Sister Vincenza to a trustworthy person who communicated this to me personally.

     «According to a recent poll, 30% of Italians are convinced that John Paul I was assassinated... fifteen million people!

     «Once the problem has been put, it can be resolved provided that silence is not imposed on this affair, that nothing is concealed and that we try to understand it with sincerity. By acting in this manner, it must be said, we do not attack the Church, but we defend her in accordance with what is written: “Zeal for your house has consumed me.” (cf. Jn 2.16-17; Mt 21.13; Mk 11.17 and Lk 19.45-46) The Gospel solution is the purification of the temple which is “a house of prayer” and must not become “a den of robbers”. It is obvious that the matter is very grave. Who has transacted more business affairs? Vatican enterprises or the ancient temple denounced by Jesus? Have not too many murders accompanied these affairs already? Is it not the case that the real cause of John Paul I’s death been concealed from the Church and the world? Has not his person been totally misrepresented?

     «If we do not answer these questions correctly, the “new evangelisation” will be discredited. At the very least, it will nothing but a sinister comedy. What is at stake is the relationship of the Church with herself, with the world and above all with God.

     «The data and the evidence that we already possess would justify a serious judicial enquiry in any law-respecting state. Now, not only does the Vatican refuse to conduct such an enquiry, but it does exactly the opposite: it thwarts and suppresses any research that tries to get to the bottom of the enigma surrounding John Paul I’s death. This state of affairs is manifest in the Vatican’s refusal to carry out an autopsy (if in fact one was not carried out) or in the clandestine nature of this operation (if it did actually take place). It also reveals itself in the obscurity surrounding the embalming, in the way that information regarding the circumstances of the death and the discovery of the body was manipulated, in the silence imposed on Sister Vincenza, in the pressure brought to bear on individuals and institutions, and in the widespread fear of speaking about this whole affair. This fear, whether conscious or not, runs particularly deep in ecclesiastical circles. It certainly does not present an image of a renewed Church capable of evangelising the world of today, and it is hardly calculated to protect the lives of Popes; on the contrary, history will view the Vatican as the ideal crime location.

     «In short, there is a great deal of evidence (facts, clues, signs) for this conclusion: a death arranged at the opportune moment. If the death of John Paul I was the effect of natural causes, then many things remain inexplicable, but if it was arranged, then everything is explained.»

     At the «opportune moment», in other words just when the Pope was about to operate his coup de majesté and to chase out the mafia who had seized hold of power in the Vatican.

     «Facts, clues and signs abound everywhere. Today, if one wishes to know the truth, there exists such a wealth of evidence that no judge on earth could disregard it, and what is more this evidence is in the public domain. It reveals John Paul I to have been a martyr of the purification and renovation of the Church. Like John the Baptist, under whose patronage he was baptised, John Paul I met his death at the opportune moment, alone and defenceless, surrounded by a darkness deliberately maintained to protect covert interests.

     «As Our Lord said, an account will be demanded (Lk 11.51). What is more, it has already been requested. God speaks in diverse ways in human history. When all the facts presented in this book are taken together, one gains a perfect understanding of Psalm 79, the psalm read out in all the churches on 4 October 1985, the anniversary of John Paul I’s burial and the day when my first work on his death and person was published. “They have left the corpses of your servants to the birds of the air for food”, and “let this be known among the nations”.

     «The Church and the world have a right to know the truth. It is a question of rendering justice to John Paul I, of proclaiming his witness, a brilliant light for our times which should be placed on a lamp stand, be it only to illuminate a house that is dilapidated and full of cracks. The introduction of his cause for beatification could well be a good opportunity for this.»

Brother Francis of Mary of the Angels