Religion: Compassionate Shepherd

Just days before the Cardinals began to choose the new Pope, an NBC newsman in Rome telephoned Venice's Albino Cardinal Luciani to ask for some biographical background. With self-effacing humor, Luciani observed: "There is a Class A list of candidates, a Class B list of candidates, and a Class C list of candidates. I am surely on the Class C list." His fellow Cardinals, obviously disagreeing, last week moved Albino Luciani to the head of the class.

Unlike his recent predecessors, the new Pontiff has never been a Vatican...

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