Untold Stories of the Last Three Popes

So I listened today to a talk called "Untold Stories of the Last Three Popes." It's one of those talks from Lighthouse Catholic Media that you sometimes see in a stand outside of parishes. It was so beautiful to hear these anecdotes and stories from the priest who served Pope Paul VI, John Paul I, and John Paul II as their personal secretary.

My favorite is that a vatican historian wrote to John Paul I, and after a paragraph said that his name was improper because you can't call yourself "the first" - history does that later if there's a second. John Paul I told his secretary to write him back and thank him for the first paragraph of the letter, but as to the second "My name is John Paul the FIRST."

He also said that Paul VI's dad was a journalist and he went to see Pope Pius X (I think it was him) one time when Pope Paul VI was 7. He went in with his father, and was all in white because he had just made his first communion. When the Pius X saw him, he asked "Who is this little pope?" He then called the boy to him and told him he would be pope one day.

But they're not all stories that are amazing like that. Some are amazing in sweeter ways, like once when the secretary couldn't find John Paul II, and thought he lost the pope (!). He was told to look in the chapel again, and he found that he was indeed there, but he didn't see him the first time because John Paul II was laying prostrate on the floor in front of the Eucharist.

So beautiful!

I also think that I need to pray for this Irish bishop, because he has had a lot of grace in this life (living with *three* popes!) but also, he was accused of murdering John Paul I - which is why John Paul II immediately appointed him his personal secretary - and now I just googled him and found all this mud slinging at him.

Poor guy. I have the feeling that he has some great friends in heaven pulling for him though...