Who remembers John Paul I in 1978...

[Misunderestimator]

passing away after only 34 days in office. The wait was more than two months between his death and John Paul II (Cardinal Karol Wojtyla) being selected. I remember waiting for the black smoke... (on edit... I believe it was white smoke we were waiting for)

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0103fea1.asp
<snip>
"So when the white smoke rises from the Vatican signifying that the college of cardinals has elected a new pope, we are assured that that pope’s authority is valid. Thus God guards his Church from the possibility of being cast into chaos by being left without an earthly governing authority."

hmmm... no earthly governing authority... that would be nice

[KitchenWitch]

1. I remember him, also

I remember my mom telling me that she hoped he was more like Pope John, than Pope Paul.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. I remember when he died....

had just arrived in New York City from a vacation in Spain and was spending a couple of days in the Big Apple before returning to Chicago.

The bellman in the hotel was Irish and I recognized his accent. He told me that the Pope had died (I am and was then a recovering Catholic, but understand the procedure) and we talked about it a bit.

Damn small hotel room, I had to climb over the bed to reach the television, but the price was right.

[jeff30997]

3. He was poisoned

[jdots]

13. yes he was poisoned probably

thank goodness another reader here.......And you all know why priests can't marry when at one time popes were even married.
could it be money ?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

15. Here's a good summary... maybe he was- or not?

http://www.prose-n-poetry.com/display_work/10583/

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. Was living in Rome at the time...

...immense sense of possibilities and joy.

[Dookus]

5. I sure do

We had just gone through all the Popapalooza surrounding his election. Then, in the middle of the night, my Mom woke me up to say the Pope had died. I said "yeah, like a month ago". Nobody else was home, so she felt compelled to tell me, I guess. So I got up, and we were watching TV, and there wasn't another special report. So I had her convinced that she had dreamed the whole thing. Just as I was heading back to bed, another Special Report came on.

Ah, remember the old days when there wasn't 24-hour news?

[Red State Rebel]

6. I remember that, I had just been confirmed

and it was such a shock.

[Zomby Woof]

7. I delivered newspapers at the time

When I ran into friends from my bus stop on my rounds after school, I would share big headlines when they occurred. I told one of my friends, a practicing Catholic, that the pope had died, and she said, "That's not funny", thinking I had cracked a late joke about Paul VI. I said very solemnly, "No, I am talking about the new one". It was unexpected, even for atheists like myself.

She apologized - having known me for 2 years and not into mocking a friend's faith - so she took the paper sadly, and on I went with my rounds. This was overseas, where the headlines were 3 days late in the Stars & Stripes newspaper, because they had to be flown in from Germany.

The other stories that stood out at that time were the Jim Jones/Guyana mass suicides, and the PSA plane crash over San Diego.

[BeatleBoot]

8. Time Magazine had a picture of John Paul I on the cover

with the title, "The New Pope"

He died so quickly after becoming Pope that a friend of mine joked that Time should have a picture of him with the title, "The Old Pope".

I was just thinking of that this evening....

[Kat45]

9. I remember.

And John Paul II took that name in his honor.

[BigMcLargehuge]

10. I remember it only because it was the only thing on TV

and I was 10, but I do remember it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. He was in office for such a short time that

my only memory of him is that he smiled a lot and was good with working crowds.

[Zomby Woof]

12. The pope in Godfather Part III...

(I know, lame sequel, forgive me) ...is based on John Paul I, and incorporates some tinfoil speculation about how and why he died. He was supposed to blow the lid off the financial scandals of the Vatican or so forth. The actor resembled him, and was a soft-spoken person like the real John Paul I.

Oh well, a little papal movie trivia.

[jdots]

14. the lamest of lame sequels

it is a shame because there was alot of truth going on in the film but was so inside it made no sence,not tin foil,just poorly done film because the love story got in the way and it was about 10 hours long wasn't it ?

[flamingyouth]

16. I do

I was 9 or so at the time.

[Mrs. Overall]

17. I was attending a Catholic high school and we had the day off

We actually had a "holiday" on the day of John Paul I's funeral. We were strongly encouraged to watch it on TV, and being a somewhat religious nerd at the time, I did watch it and found it interesting. Of course, I later denied watching the funeral when most of my friends talked about how they had taken the day to either sleep or go shopping.