Pope John Paul I Conspiracy Theories - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Malachi Martin's book Vatican: A Novel is a novel based on recent papal history. Although officially a work of fiction, Martin proposes the theory that the pope was murdered by the Soviet Union because he would abdicate the benign policy of his two predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI, towards accommodating communism, and once again condemn it as an atheistic totalitarian ideology. Martin believed that the church structure was infiltrated for decades by illuminati agents who reached positions of high influence and rank, such as Jean-Marie Villot, at that time Cardinal Secretary of State.

Lead singer of The Fall, Mark E. Smith wrote a play entitled Hey, Luciani, about the purported murder conspiracy, which was produced and performed in London. Several songs from the play were released as Fall singles.

Australian comedian Shaun Micallef wrote a one-act play entitled "The Death of Pope John Paul I". In it the pope is found in bed, sitting upright, unable to be woken. Two cardinals attempt to perform the ritualistic tapping with the silver hammer but no-one can locate the proper instrument, so they use a claw hammer instead.

The film The Pope Must Die takes its title from a passage in Yallop's book. The film's plot - a poor country priest becomes a reforming Pope, pitched against a corrupt and Mafia-riddled Vatican - is a parody of Luciani's career, ending in comedy rather than tragedy.

The Last Confession is a play written by Roger Crane. It is a thriller that tracks the dramatic tensions, crises of faith, and political manoeuvrings inside the Vatican surrounding the death of Pope John Paul I. The play toured the UK in the spring of 2007, before being transferred to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with a cast including David Suchet. It was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 4 October 2008. In October 2010 the play was brought to continental Europe by the Antwerp Theater Group "De Speling".

The 1990 motion picture The Godfather Part III featured a story element depicting Società Generale Immobiliare, the largest real estate company in the world whose former largest shareholder was the Holy See, and the Vatican Bank involved in organized crime during and after the death of the old pope and the election of a fictional Cardinal named Lamberto to the papacy. Lamberto takes the papal name "John Paul I" and, like the real Pope John Paul I, he mysteriously dies.

A storyline in the comic book series Warrior Nun Areala features a flashback back to John Paul I's pontificate. Shortly after being elected to the papacy John Paul discovers a conspiracy of demon worshiping Freemasons in the Vatican and works to root them out. Discovered, the Masons kill him in order to continue their goal to destroy the Catholic Church. While John Paul does die, the Warrior Nuns manage to avenge him.

In The Company: A Novel of the CIA by Robert Littell, Pope John Paul I is murdered by a KGB hired killer.

The 22nd episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded "Vatican", featured theories and investigation on Pope John Paul I death.