Picked up a copy of The Last Pope, by Luis Miguel Rocha, in Gatwick Airport a week ago. A fascinating read with a neat summary of most of the known (if disputed) details about Luciani's last days. Author claims to be personally acquainted with Luciani's assassin, which is a bit hard to swallow, but then who knows? The fictional side of this work is rather hard reading, sensationalized and clearly imitative of The Da Vinci Code. But what I found most interesting is how the mystery and controversy surrounding Luciani's death simply will not go away. Here is yet again another 'conspiracy theory', although the final revelation is a letdown (I won't spoil the plot for any interested readers.). Is this really important, 30 years after his death, or should we simply move on, and not get embroiled in a 'Kennedy assassination' type scenario, with one convoluted theory following another? Well, I am one of those who feel that the circumstances of his death still need to be cleared up and the character assassination that followed needs to be reversed. It may not be a large issue, but we each have our own charism in the church and our own role to play, and one of my own 'interior calls', so to speak, is to continue to keep this issue alive. Papa Luciani, in my opinion, remains a martyr to reform in the Church. Whether one looks at his physical death as murder or not, his name and reputation have definitely been besmirched and that is an injustice that needs to be rectified.
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