This week I was browsing on the Vatican website and I opened the page on Pope John Paul I who was Pope for 33 days back in 1978. I looked at some of the entries there and I came across the text of a radio message he presented to the whole Church within a couple of days of his election. It gives a great insight into what was going through his mind in relation to the new role entrusted to him. What I have printed here as the quote for the week sums up his understanding of that role:
“We place ourselves interiorly, putting all of our physical and spiritual strength at the service of the universal mission of the Church, that is to say, at the service of the world. In other words, we will be at the service of truth, of justice, of peace, of harmony, of collaboration within nations as well as rapport among peoples.”
Pope John Paul I, taken from a radio message he addressed to the whole Church shortly after being elected.