section_path: Death/2018 revelations
section_name: 2018 revelations
paragraph_text: 2018 revelations
  
  The journalist and vice-postulator for John Paul I's cause of canonisation, Stefania Falasca, published a new book in 2017 titled Pope Luciani, Chronicle of a Death, in which she revealed that John Paul I had complained of chest pains hours before his death and the evening before, but paid no attention to them and ordered that his doctor not be called. Falasca confirmed, after interviewing the sisters who found him and documents from the Vatican Apostolic Archive, that John Paul I died of a heart attack in the late evening hours of 28 September 1978.
  
  The Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, in his preface for the book, describes the various conspiracies regarding John Paul I's death as little more than "noir reconstructions". Parolin further says that the sudden death of the pope inspired "myriad theories, suspicions, suppositions" based on opinion rather than fact.
  
  Falasca noted the 2009 testimony of Sister Margherita Marin, one of the two sisters who found the pope dead in his bedroom on the morning of 29 September 1978. John Paul I had made it a practice to have a morning coffee in the sacristy and then go into the chapel to pray before tending to the day's matters. Sister Vincenza Taffarel had noted the pope had not touched the coffee she had left for him in the sacristy at 5:15 am (after about 10 minutes) and went looking for him but found him dead, and hastily summoned Marin, who also went into the room.
  
  Sister Vincenza said: "He hasn't come out yet? Why not?" and knocked a few more times but heard silence, then opened the door and walked in. Marin remained in the hallway but heard the elder sister say: "Your Holiness, you shouldn't pull these jokes on me" because Sister Vincenza also had heart problems. Marin testified that John Paul I's hands were cold and she was struck by the darkness of his nails. Marin further testified that original information provided by the Vatican regarding who discovered the pope was wrong, since it had originally been claimed the discovery was by the pope's secretaries Lorenzi and Magee. Marin testified that "he was in bed with a slight smile" on his face. The reading light over the headboard was still on, with his two pillows under his back propping him up, with his legs outstretched and his arms on top of the bedsheets. John Paul I was still in his pyjamas with a few typewritten sheets in his hands. His head was slightly turned to the right and his eyes were partially closed; his glasses rested on his nose.
  
  John Paul I had suffered a severe pain in his chest for about five minutes around 7:30 pm while reciting the vespers in the chapel with Magee before dinner, but insisted against calling for Doctor Renato Buzzonetti. The latter, the book claimed, was informed of that episode after the pope's death. The book also revealed that, before the conclave that elected John Paul II, the cardinals had sent a series of written questions to the doctors who had embalmed John Paul I either on 10 or 11 October to check if there had been any signs of traumatic injuries, so as to ascertain if he died naturally rather than suspiciously. Doctor Buzzonetti sent a detailed report to the Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli on 9 October 1979 detailing that the episode of pain John Paul I suffered was in the upper part of the sternal region.
  
  Sister Margherita noted in late 2017 in comments made in Belluno that the pope had made a half-hour phone call on the evening of his death to Giovanni Colombo and said he wanted the Rector Major of the Salesians Egidio Viganò to agree to serve as John Paul I's successor as Patriarch of Venice.
  
  The journalist and vice-postulator for John Paul I's cause of canonisation, Stefania Falasca, published a new book in 2017 titled Pope Luciani, Chronicle of a Death, in which she revealed that John Paul I had complained of chest pains hours before his death and the evening before, but paid no attention to them and ordered that his doctor not be called. Falasca confirmed, after interviewing the sisters who found him and documents from the Vatican Apostolic Archive, that John Paul I died of a heart attack in the late evening hours of 28 September 1978.
  
  The Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, in his preface for the book, describes the various conspiracies regarding John Paul I's death as little more than "noir reconstructions". Parolin further says that the sudden death of the pope inspired "myriad theories, suspicions, suppositions" based on opinion rather than fact.
  
  Falasca noted the 2009 testimony of Sister Margherita Marin, one of the two sisters who found the pope dead in his bedroom on the morning of 29 September 1978. John Paul I had made it a practice to have a morning coffee in the sacristy and then go into the chapel to pray before tending to the day's matters. Sister Vincenza Taffarel had noted the pope had not touched the coffee she had left for him in the sacristy at 5:15 am (after about 10 minutes) and went looking for him but found him dead, and hastily summoned Marin, who also went into the room.
  
  Sister Vincenza said: "He hasn't come out yet? Why not?" and knocked a few more times but heard silence, then opened the door and walked in. Marin remained in the hallway but heard the elder sister say: "Your Holiness, you shouldn't pull these jokes on me" because Sister Vincenza also had heart problems. Marin testified that John Paul I's hands were cold and she was struck by the darkness of his nails. Marin further testified that original information provided by the Vatican regarding who discovered the pope was wrong, since it had originally been claimed the discovery was by the pope's secretaries Lorenzi and Magee. Marin testified that "he was in bed with a slight smile" on his face. The reading light over the headboard was still on, with his two pillows under his back propping him up, with his legs outstretched and his arms on top of the bedsheets. John Paul I was still in his pyjamas with a few typewritten sheets in his hands. His head was slightly turned to the right and his eyes were partially closed; his glasses rested on his nose.
  
  John Paul I had suffered a severe pain in his chest for about five minutes around 7:30 pm while reciting the vespers in the chapel with Magee before dinner, but insisted against calling for Doctor Renato Buzzonetti. The latter, the book claimed, was informed of that episode after the pope's death. The book also revealed that, before the conclave that elected John Paul II, the cardinals had sent a series of written questions to the doctors who had embalmed John Paul I either on 10 or 11 October to check if there had been any signs of traumatic injuries, so as to ascertain if he died naturally rather than suspiciously. Doctor Buzzonetti sent a detailed report to the Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli on 9 October 1979 detailing that the episode of pain John Paul I suffered was in the upper part of the sternal region.
  
  Sister Margherita noted in late 2017 in comments made in Belluno that the pope had made a half-hour phone call on the evening of his death to Giovanni Colombo and said he wanted the Rector Major of the Salesians Egidio Viganò to agree to serve as John Paul I's successor as Patriarch of Venice.