NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State, today celebrated Mass in memory of Popes Paul VI and John Paul I. In his homily he characterized them both as "the two popes of the Council."

      While the two pontiffs were very different in many ways, Cardinal Sodano said, they both presided over a Church "seized by the Spirit, with a new vigor for evangelization and dialogue with the contemporary world." They both strove for Christian unity, he said.

      Vatican Radio also devoted a part of its broadcast today to the memory of Pope John Paul I, who died 20 years ago, after only 33 days as Pontiff. Vatican Radio recalled the words Pope John Paul I spoke at his last public audience on September 27, 1978: "the love of God is a mysterious voyage." That night, John Paul I died of a heart attack.