He held the presidency of the Vatican for 33 days What is the story of the mysterious death of John Paul I?

Since his death in 1978 after taking over the presidency of the Vatican for only 33 days, doubts still surround the death of Pope John Paul I, and theories are woven in an attempt to reach the truth. What is the story?

Many years later, questions are resurfacing again about the mystery surrounding the death of Pope John Paul I, just 33 days after he was elected president of the Vatican.

The American newspaper The Washington Post published a report , discussing the accounts that were woven about the nature of his death, which varied between conspiracy theories alleging that he was killed, or his hidden desire for salvation by death.

What is the story of that monk? How was his death explained by three opposing theories?

On the morning of September 29, 1978, the Vatican announced in a brief statement the death of Pope John Paul I of a sudden heart attack, and indicated that his body had been discovered by a priest who had served as its personal secretary.

But within a few days after his death, rumors spread that he had been subjected to a despicable plot against his death, and cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church lobbied for an explanation of some of the questions raised about his death.

The Italian news agency reported, "The Vatican "misidentified the identity of the person who discovered his body," and suspicions began to devour everyone because of the conflicting information.

Questions such as: "Why did the Vatican misrepresent the person who discovered the body? Why did the Church rush to embalm the body quickly before an autopsy? Was there an attempt to cover up a murder?", remained unanswered for years.

What was agreed upon by all the accounts that dealt with his death, is that the monk who was known as the smiling Pope was completely different. He grew up in a poor family in one of the distant Italian mountains, and did not want to be more than a village priest. He was an ascetic and did not care about the luxury of the place after his appointment in The Vatican, and used clear and simple language in his first address.

The first theory: conspiracy

British crime novelist David Yallop published in 1984 a novel entitled "In the Name of God", in which he put forward the theory that "the Vatican's deep state planned to destroy the Pope, because he was trying to expose corruption that reached the highest levels, and it carried out this by poisoning him and covering up his murder."

The novel, which sold millions of copies, did not rely on much evidence, but it gained wide popularity due to its reliance on a real incident in which Freemasonry was involved in one way or another.

The incident was the famous case of corruption involving the Vatican Bank, the most powerful financial institution, which was surrounded by cases of looting of funds by the highest authorities of the Vatican in the eighties, and implicated a number of them in addition to Bishop Roberto Calvi, who was a member of an illegal Italian Masonic lodge, and then was found dead In London after the details of the case were made public.

The Vatican completely denied this novel and described it as absurd, but it filled a void in the popular imagination and a large number of common people believed in it.

The second theory: the desire to die

In 1987, the Vatican asked British journalist and author John Cornwell to write a book to dispel the lies about the Pope's mysterious death, and opened the inner doors of the religious establishment for him to do his research and collect his answers.

The narrative that the church gave to the British writer presented a different picture of the smiling Pope, as he was very weak and shaky, and had nothing to do with revealing any financial corruption. ?!".

In addition to his rapid crash and fragile psyche, Cornwell's book describes the pope as having a confused mental state, having trouble remembering when to take medications, and harboring a "hidden desire to die that made him ignore treatment," according to the author.

Theory 3: Just a heart attack

In 2017, Stefanca Valasca, an Italian scholar working for the Church published a book that relied on an unprecedented collection of documents, which included confidential doctors' reports and huge volumes kept by the Vatican analyzing all aspects of the Pope's life.

Valaska categorically rejects all previous theories and calls them lies, and asserts that "the goal of her project is to protect the facts related to the life of John Paul I."

Valasca presented the Pope’s death as a “sudden and unavoidable tragedy,” and a heart attack was likely, according to a Vatican doctor, pointing out that the family history included the sudden death of many people due to circulatory problems, and three years before his death, he was taken to hospital due to a blood clot. in the same way.

Valaska refuted all the previous accounts and denied them in her book with evidence, but the doubts did not dissipate among the people, and the truth remains unknown.