On 26 August 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani was elected Pope on only the fourth ballot, taking the name of John Paul I.
He came from near Belluno, some 80 miles north of Venice, his father passing much of his working life as a seasonal worker – bricklayer and electrician – in Switzerland.
Luciani had been Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, and subsequently for nine years Patriarch of Venice; he was however little known outside Italy, and it was a matter of considerable surprise that the 111 voting cardinals – of whom only 27 were Italian – should have chosen him so quickly.
The English cardinal Basil Hume had an explanation: ‘Seldom have I had such an experience of the presence of God… I am not one for whom the dictates of the Holy Spirit are self-evident. I'm slightly hard-boiled on that… But for me he was God's candidate.'
Just 33 days later, on Thursday, September 28, the Pope sat down to dinner in his Vatican apartment with his two secretaries, the Italian Father Diego Lorenzi and the Irishman Father John Magee. It was a simple meal – clear soup, veal, fresh beans and salad.
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