Songs of a "Poor Wren"

"If I hadn't been a bishop, I would have wanted to be a I journalist," Albino Luciani once told an interviewer. Throughout his lifetime the new Pope has been a man of words, written and spoken, in sermons and interviews, in dozens of articles and several books. The samples below reveal a man with profound conservative instincts but a light touch and a sense of humor. They also show that, despite a parochial career, John Paul I has wide cultural interests:

TERRORISM After terrorists kidnaped Christian Demo cratic Leader Aldo Moro earlier this year, Cardinal Luciani told a newspaper that "the negation of God" was at the root of social distress. "Tear God out of man's heart? Tell children that sin is only a fairy tale invented by their grandparents to make them behave? Print school textbooks that ignore God and deride authority? Then don't become amazed at what's happening. It's already an effort for those who believe in God to remain honest. Just imagine how it is if one no longer believes in God."

COMMUNISM When Italy's Communist leader, Enrico Berlinguer, made a peace bid to the church last October, Luciani wrote: "At the time of Fascism people said, 'The difference between the Soviets and the Fascists is that if you have five cows, the Soviets take four and leave you one. The Fascists leave you all the cows, but they come and milk then all.' I'm afraid that tomorrow we'll be able to say something similar: 'The Communists of the Soviet Union rob you of al most all your freedom. The Italian Communists promise to leave you all of it, but in reality it's not so.' "

DIVORCE "I think that matrimonial love is giving of oneself to another, but so intimate and noble, so loyal and trustful, that in a way it claims everything, and in another it excludes everyone. That love is a decapitated love if we admit reservations, a temporary nature, and rescindability. So that divorce is the sword of Damocles hanging over conjugal love: its presence generates uncertainty, fear, suspicion."

EDUCATION In his 1949 book Catechism in Crumbs, offering advice to religious educators, Luciani wrote: "Michelangelo was asked, How do you produce statues that are so full of life? He responded: The marble already contains the statues; it is just a matter of extracting them. Like marble, children are rough material: you can extract gentlemen, heroes, even saints." Last year Luciani publicly opposed the proposed new concordat between the Vatican and Italy because it would remove compulsory religion classes from public schools: "By decapitating religious culture, will we not decapitate culture as well?"

Over the years Luciani has written many whimsical "letters" to past personalities, real and fictional, which were collected in a 1976 book put out by the St. Anthony Messenger Press called Illustrissimi (The Most Illustrious Ones).

To Sir Walter Scott "Honor to the Scotsman and the creator of the clean historical novel. I repeat it though I have small reservations about the arrows shot here and there against the Catholic Church." He extols the "courage and loyalty" in Scott's novels and expresses "astonishment that despite today's deluge of morally degrading literature, young people are still drawn to them."

To Charles Dickens Luciani informs Dickens that he liked his novels as a boy because"they are imbued with a sense of love for the poor and of social regeneration, and are rich with fantasy and humanity." He would like to see these ideas "broadened and adapted" for all poor people, nations and individuals alike, particularly for "the poor Third World countries."

To Pinocchio (describing what it is like to be a youth today): "You will feel the need to establish your own ego. You will feel the need to be accepted by your peer group. Whatever they wear, you will wear. While you will be anticonformist in many things, you will be without realizing it a 100% conformist. Some people advocate a more per missive morality. But young people mustn't accept that permissiveness. Their love should be love with a capital 'L,' and it should be beautiful like a flower, precious like a jewel, and not vulgar like the bottom of a dirty glass."

To Carlo Goldoni (comparing the 18th century Venetian playwright's The Boors with Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew): "Shakespeare's Katherina is 'tamed' by hunger and weariness, but in The Boors, the reverse is true. The husbands start out as the 'tamers' and end up 'tamed.' They have to admit that wives and daughters should not be tamed, but listened to. Between your play and Shakespeare's, I prefer yours, dear Goldoni. Yours is more human, more just, closer to the reality of both then and today -- even if your feminism seems pale compared to today's."

To Mark Twain "I fear that the faithful of my diocese would be scandalized: 'A bishop who quotes Mark Twain!' Perhaps one should explain to them that just as books vary from one to the other, so too do bishops. Some bishops, in fact, resemble eagles, who sail loftily with solemn documents. Others are nightingales who marvelously sing the praises of the Lord. Others, instead, are poor wrens, who only twitter as they seek to express a few thoughts on extremely profound subjects. I, dear Twain, belong to the latter category."

To St. Bernard of Clairvaux Recalling the saint's letter of advice concerning which candidate to vote for in a conclave, Luciani writes: "The first is a saint? Let him pray for us. The second is learned? Let him edify us and write a few erudite books. The third is a man of prudence? Let him govern us. Let him become Pope."

To Jesus Christ "Dear Jesus. I have received some criticism. People have said: 'He is a bishop, a Cardinal. He has been busy writing letters in all directions. To Mark Twain. To Peguy and who knows to how many others. And not even one line to Jesus Christ.' But you know that I try to maintain a continuous conversation with you . . . I take comfort in the thought that the important thing is not for one person to write to Christ but for many people to love and emulate him. Fortunately, despite everything, this still occurs today."

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