MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Smiling Pope credited with an Argentine miracle on his way to sainthood

John Paul I lasted only 33 days as the head of the Catholic Church

The late Pope John Paul I, known for his charismatic smile and his controversial sudden death 33 days into his pontificate, is to be beatified by a decree from Argentina-born Pope Francis for a miracle having cured an Argentine girl in 2011, whom the doctors practically considered dead.

Pope Francis met earlier this week with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of the miracle attributed to the intercession of Pope John Paul I, whose path to beatification at a date to be announced has been cleared.

Born Albino Luciani, John Paul I's intercession before God was essential on July 23, 2011, to the healing of Argentine girl Candela Giarda, according to Vatican News. Candela was then 11 years old and suffered from “severe acute inflammatory encephalopathy, malignant refractory epileptic disease, septic shock” and stood no chance of survival, according to the physicians treating her at the Favaloro Foundation in Buenos Aires, where she had been taken from her native city of Paraná, capital of the province of Entre Ríos.

Facing her daughter's imminent death, Roxana Sosa, went to the Nuestra Señora de la Rábida parish, near the clinic, from where Father agreed on José Dabusti to visit the girl. “When he approached Cande's bed, he prayed and told me to put my hands on top of her and entrusted her to Pope John Paul I,” her mother told Infobae. As the hours passed, Candela's health improved, much to the surprise of the doctors. For her mother, “miracles exist, and I saw it with Cande.”

Albino Luciani was born on October 17, 1912, in Forno di Canale (today Canale d'Agordo) in the Veneto region in northern Italy and died on September 27, 1978, in his Papal bedroom. He has ordained a priest in 1935. In 1958 he was appointed bishop of Vittorio Veneto and in 1973, a cardinal. When Pope Paul VI died, the conclave elected him as the new pope on August 26, 1978. His papacy lasted only 33 days: he died on September 29, 1978. He was succeeded by John Paul II. He was the first pope born in the 20th century and the first ever to choose a compound name, John in homage to the “good pope”, John XXIII, and Paul for his predecessor Paul VI.

John Paul I's death has been a subject of numerous investigations by journalists and writers, although Vatican authorities ruled it a heart attack. English researcher David A. Yallop has written one of the most comprehensive books on the matter titled In God's Name, which depicts other alternatives on how he may have died and who could have profited from his unforeseen demise in a scenario where corruption and financial scandals were the Vatican's daily bread. French historian Roger Peyrefitte also published the fiction novel Soutane Rouge, which did very little to hide it was based on a presumably true and untold story.