A Thief in the Night
Bannon, Barbara A.
WHO DUNIT, IF 'TWAS DONE? A THIEF IN THE NIGHT The Mysterious Death of Pope John Paul I John Cornwell Simon & Schuster, $21.95, 366 pp. Barbara A. Bannon onsidering the impact Polish-born Pope...
...Comwell proves conclusively that wholly unnecessary confusion was aroused by such matters as Vatican unwillingness to admit that a nun (a woman) regularly came into the papal bedchamber early in the morning with a cup of coffee...
...They range from the time of death and who discovered the body to matters involving an autopsy and embalming...
...John Cornwell is a highly respected British journalist who has been editor of the Foreign News Service of the Observer of London and author of several books...
...One of the most interesting and memorable figures involved in the so-called "conspiracy plot" is Archbishop Paul Casimir Marcinkus, bom in Cicero, Illinois, and a key figure in Vatican banking circles when those circles were under serious, criminal investigation...
...There is much here to give any Catholic grounds for deep concern...
...At the heart of this book, however, is a memorable investigation, not so much into the sudden death of Pope John Paul I, but a much more profound inquiry into how the Vatican operates in today's world...
...Comwell writes, "the Vatican expected me to prove that John Paul I had not been poisoned by one of their own...
...Poor Venetian Cardinal Luciani, who became Pope John Paul I, was clearly in over his head...
...He begins by tackling ten questions such as might be raised in connection with any sudden, unexpected death...
...Indeed, most of the "mystery" and rumors surrounding the papal death could have been avoided, Comwell proves, if only good sense had been followed rather than outdated papal protocol...
...There he draws a pivotal conclusion based on admitted guesswork...
...Another subject Comwell was able to see, when previous investigators had been unaware of her existence, was Pope John Paul I's niece, a doctor...
...The fact that the papacy of John Paul I lasted only thirty-three days, August 26 to September 29, 1978, is what people remember most about him, if they remember anything at all-that and a vague feeling that there were rumors of mystery, possibly conspiracy, even murder associated with the circumstances surrounding his death...
...Until the very end of this fascinating and enormously detailed mystery story, one cannot fault in any way Comwell's objectivity...
...It is the nature of that culpability and unacknowledged guilt (and what lies behind it) in which Comwell deeply involves his readers...
...There are other key questions ranging as far as whether morticians were summoned before the pope's body was supposedly found...
...Barbara A. Bannon onsidering the impact Polish-born Pope John Paul II has had on today's Roman Catholic church, it is not surprising we tend to forget that there had to have been a John Paul I before there could be a John Paul II...
...He remains, however, a very plausible and conscientious investigator...
...Here he embarks on a hypothesis that does solve certain key questions but cannot be supported by facts...
...Some people clearly lied, but which ones...
...He met once with Pope John Paul II who told him, "I want you to know that you have my support and blessing in this work of yours...
...Comwell was asked to conduct his investigation by American Archbishop John Foley, "a comparative 'new boy' in the Vatican bureaucracy...
...A Thief in the Night received high praise in Britain from, among others, Graham Greene, Anthony Burgess, and the Times of London...
...Comwell had considerable help from the Vatican along the way (and some hindrance...
...He admits that he himself is a lapsed Catholic of more than twenty years, a situation he does not expect to change...
...And did they lie out of a desire to protect the papal image or themselves...
...He used a tape recorder at all times so that the words he attributes to individuals can be authenticated...
...This seems utterly ridiculous to twentieth-century American and British readers, but it led to all sorts of unnecessary suspicion...
...That was the Polish Cardinal Wojtyla, who went on to become Pope John Paul II...
...It is from his interviews with the late pope's two priest secretaries, one Italian, one Irish, that Comwell draws pivotal and contradictory data, however...
...She produced vital information about the state of her uncle's health...
...It is curious that he kept noting the next pope would be "a foreigner, the one who sat opposite me during the conclave...
...It is doubtful whether John Paul II or any other Vatican official would have been willing to give an imprimatur to A Thief in the Night precisely because Comwell does find the Vatican culpable in the pope's death although never guilty of murder...
Vol. 117 • January 1990 • No. 1
