The Church has recognised the miracle attributed to the Venerable Servant of God, Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani), who was born on 17 October 1912 in the northern Italian town of Canale d’Agordo and who died on 28 September 1978 in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. He headed the Church from when he was elected Pope on 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later.

A miracle clears him for beatification

Pope Francis on Wednesday, October 13, received in audience Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorized his dicastery to promulgate the decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Albino Luciani or Pope John Paul I.

The Congregation’s website says it is about the healing of an eleven-year-old girl at the end of her life with "severe acute inflammatory encephalopathy, a malignant refractory epileptic illness and septic shock".  Her situation was very serious, characterized by numerous daily seizures and a septic state of bronchopneumonia. The initiative to invoke the Pope had been taken by the parish priest of the parish under whose jurisdiction was the hospital. 

So for Pope John Paul I, who hailed from the northern Italian region of Veneto, the way to beatification has been cleared and Pope Francis will decide upon a date for the ceremony.

Priesthood

Born on October 17, 1912 in Forno di Canale (today Canale d'Agordo), in the province of Belluno, and died on September 28, 1978 in the Vatican, Albino Luciani was Pope for only 34 days, one of the shortest pontificates in history. He was the son of a socialist worker who had worked for a long time as an emigrant in Switzerland.  

In a letter written to Luciani granting him permission to enter the seminary, his father wrote: "I hope that when you become a priest, you will be on the side of the poor, because Christ was on their side" - words that Luciani would put into practice all his life.

Albino was ordained priest in 1935 and in 1958, immediately after the election of John XXIII, who as the Patriarch of Venice knew the him, was appointed bishop of Vittorio Veneto. Son of a land facing emigration due to poverty, but very lively from the social point of view, and of a Church characterized by the figures of great priests, Luciani participated in the entire Second Vatican Council and applied its directives with enthusiasm.

A pastor close to his people, he spent a lot of time in the confessional.  During the years the lawfulness of the contraceptive pill was being discussed, he listened to many young families and repeatedly expressed himself in favor of an opening of the Church on its use.