The Anniversary of John Paul I’s election in Canale D’Agordo
I couldn’t resist just one more post on this subject for the anniversary.
“I was cured through his merits”
“My cure was a miracle by Papa Luciani.” Giuseppe Denora gave his first public testimony to his cure at a ceremony preceding the celebration of the anniversary of John Paul I’s election as Pope, in Canale d’Agordo on August 26, 2009.
His miracle is now being examined by the commission of doctors in the Vatican who must certify if it is really a miracle. In 1992, he was suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of stomach cancer. “They had given me 3 months to live, 4 at most,. In my room I had a picture of Luciani that I had kept from a trip to Rome: he had struck me from the day of his election. I was in bed; it seemed to me that that the Pope’s image came from the picture and touched me lightly with his hand. I told myself: I’m mad. But if for some time I had felt a burning in my stomach, especially at night, after that episode, the disturbance stopped. And I considered it a miracle by Luciani.”
Denora spoke of it to no one except his wife, for 12 years. But every year he went to Rome and left a note on John Paul I’s tomb. “I am here again this year.” Only after 12 years did he write to the authorities about the miracle. He was convinced to take this step by a cloistered nun he confided in and she advised him to make the fact public. During the process on the miracle, Denora maintained a strict silence. Now that the completed process has been turned over to the Vatican — at the end of May, after bering delayed from last September — Denora has broken his silence in Luciani’s home village.
Two Popes united by a Single Name
The blue and white banner of Canale D’Agordo and the red and white one of Wadwice at the entrance of the piazza, the wooden altar of Dante Moro in honor of the “smiling Pope,” and, on the day of the anniversary the icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa beside it. Two popes, and a single name: John Paul. The Piazza in Canale festively decorated with papal colors, symbolically embraced, together with a great any of the faithful, Papa Luciani and Papa Wojtyla in the Mass concelebrated yesterday, in the presence of a number of authorities, by the Bishop of Belluno, Giuseppe Andrich and a multitude of priests, both from the village and from outside it.
The double anniversary, the 31st of Albino Luciani’s election as Pope and the 30th of Pope John Paul II’s visit to his predecessor’s native village in August 1979, was the occasion for uniting not only the two popes, but also two communities: Canale d’Agordo and Wadowice, the polish town where Karol Wojtyla was born. “A happy and fruitful bond,” said the bishop in his initial greeting. “It would be beautiful for these two communities to be able to find a common space to grow together in culture activities and sports,” the mayor of Canale, Rinaldo De Rocco, hoped. “A relationship that it certainly a serious and important thing, as is the exchange of gifts that everyone carries inside them,” the mayor of Wadowice, Ewa Filipiak, said in closing.
There was no mention of a twinning of the two towns in the message (translated for the presence of the delegation from Wadowice and a large number of Poles), but the desire to form a close bond between the two towns was very clear. “Papa Luciani and Papa Wojtyla,” Bishop Andrich said. “were named bishops the same year, 1958, they were united by the same simple origins but above all they both had Mary as a reference point.” It is precisely to Our Lady that the prelate asked the faithful to address their prayers for vocations for which the formation in the family is important.
After De Rocco thanked the Polish delegation and those present, his colleague from Wadowice closed with these words: “the most beautiful book in the world could give no idea of what I’ve seen here.”
(Adapted from two articles in Corriere delle Alpi, August 27, 2009, p. 22)
I have an earlier post where Denora describes his cure here.
