POPE JOHN PAUL I
Pope John Paul I (born Albino Luciani; 17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978), served as Pope from 26 August 1978 to his sudden death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes, the first to occur since 1605. John Paul I remains the most recent Italian-born pope, ending a succession of such popes that started with Clement VII in 1523. He was declared a Servant of God by his successor, Pope John Paul II, on 23 November 2003, the first step on the road to sainthood. He was the first pontiff to have a double name, choosing “John Paul” in honour of his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI. (More from Wikipedia)
The Wikipedia article on Slow Train Coming also states (with no footnotes), in apparent violation of their NPOV (neutral point of view) policy: “In a year when Van Morrison and Patti Smith released their own spiritual works in Into the Music and Wave, respectively, [Bob] Dylan’s album seemed vitriolic and bitter in comparison.” Neither album is particularly Christian, from what I can tell; the title track of the Patti Smith album “Wave” is dedicated to the nearly forgotten Pope John Paul I, but evidently only because it was recorded during his brief papacy.
(August 2014)
