ID card for Pope John Paul I sold on Ebay

June 22, 2011

An identity card issued by the Venice city council to Cardinal Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I, has been sold on Ebay for €5,200 (almost $7,500).

The identity card, which lists the bearer's job as "Patriarch," had been thought lost, but was sold on Ebay by a priest of the Venice archdiocese who said that the proceeds would be given to charity.

Unfortunately the tabloid Daily Mail, rather than presenting the sale as a simple human-interest story, uses it as the pretext for dredging up--and presenting as fact--a series of sensational rumors about the death of Pope John Paul I, who succumbed to a heart attack just 33 days after his papal election in 1978.

 

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Further information:

• Identity card belonging to 'murdered' Pope John Paul I sells on eBay for almost £5,000 (Daily Mail)