December 1973 : I was 13 years old. I was studying in a parish school and that was my final year in primary school. Next year I went to a public secondary school, so I decided to leave my religious practices, not even to step inside a Church any more. This decision was taken because of a stupid thing that happened to me. I knew the Commandments very well, the difference between hell and Heaven but I never worried about my eternal life.
1976 : God called me for the first time, in a kind of 'violent' way. I received an electric shock when I put my hand on a light behind the TV set. I couldn' t remember what happened to me then. The only thing I can remember is that it was difficult to speak, I was shaking and I couldn't walk very well. I thought about my own death. Yet, I was alive. I felt panic. I prayed the Rosary; that' s all. God had to wait two more years to try again.
August 6th, 1978 : Pope Paul VI died. I was surprised. I said to myself that Paul VI was my Pope. It was usual for me to hear about this Pope during all those years of my childhood. I couldn't believe that a Pope could die. So, not only was I not interested in the Conclave but I even refused to acknowledge the Pope who was to come.
August 26th, 1978 : My mother was taking a rest and listening to the radio. She called me. I went to her room and she told me that we had a new Pope : he was Albino Luciani, from Venice.(Venice, the city of dreams!!. I used to design gondolas when I was in primary school). I had never heard of the new Pope but suddenly, strangely enough, I went out of the room, took a stick and began to knock on the two noisy columns we had in the patio. The sound it made was similar to bells. God was calling me again! Then I ran to the terrace (in the meantime, the parish bells were ringing continuously) and I began jumping and shouting with joy. Maybe somebody, looking at me, might think : "But, is this girl crazy ? First, she refused the Pope and now ..." I had to wait about two hours to see the new Pope. I was looking at some slides from my winter holidays with my school-friends when I paid attention to the TV : the new Pope was about to appear on St. Peters' balcony. When I saw him I was impacted. I was seeing the Lords' face on a man; I was looking at a saint. I expressed : "He has a Pope' s face". Maybe I said that because the word 'Pope' represented, to me, just that face I was watching on the TV. After that, I began to be interested, not only in knowing all about the Pope, but also in the Church, in my own religion. I realized people all over the world were very fond of him, they were in love with him and I felt the same, too.
September 16th, 1978 : I was reading in the kitchen. At 6.30 pm, the parish bells were ringing to call us to Mass at 7.00 pm. I began feeling a strange 'force' that called me to go to Mass, but I resisted saying: "No, no!" I remembered when my grandmother asked me to accompany her to Mass and I always replied : "No, today I can't. No, I don't want to. No, next time" and so on. I always found excuses for not going to church. However, that day the force insisted and insisted and I said: "No, no !" The force was so irresistible that I was almost pulled out of my chair and I went to Mass with my grandmother with joy. This was the only Mass I attended during Pope Luciani' s pontificate.
September 29th, 1978 : At 6.30 a.m., my mother woke me to go to school and told me the bad news. I was sleepy and I said : "What are you talking about ?. The Pope died last month !" "No, the new one !!!" I couldn't believe it (who could believe it ?). When I saw that it was true, I broke into tears and I began to shout. I was crying all day long. Of course, I didn't go to school and I couldn't take my private English lessons in the afternoon.
Some days before, I had had a strange premonition about Pope Luciani; something bad; a kind of fear and I didn’t know why.
September 30th, 1978 : I returned to Mass and I have never abandoned my Church since.
November
1978 : I
decided to go to see my parish Priest to make my Confession, after a five year
absence from the Sacrament of Penance.
This time, God called me in a very sweet way and I said: "Yes" to Him. Perhaps, Pope Luciani's death was necessary to hasten my conversion ...
Gloria
C. Molinari
GCM 2001