Friday, April 30, 2010

Friday QOTD (and for our college's final exam period)

“If someone had told me I would be Pope one day, I would have studied harder.”
--Pope John Paul I

1 the midrash:

Deacon Bob Yerhot said...

Thank you for the quote from Papa Luciani! He is one for whom I have special affection as I was able to serve Mass for him and be around during that brief time in 1978 when he was pope. I believe the man is a saint, and I can only wonder now what his pontificate would have brought the Church if he were to have lived for the 20 years we all had hoped and expected. Papa Luciani, the Smiling Pope, often gave the impression of being an intellectual lightweight, and his writings seemed rather simplistic compared to Paul VI, JPII or Benedict XVI, but that impression vanishes when one reads between the lines and within the context in which his various letters and homilies were written.

Your quote reflects his profound humility and identification with the poor. The man had a couple of doctoral degrees if I recall correctly. He studied well and with benefit to himself and his people.