Vatican City, Oct 17, 2008 / 17:46 pm
The director of the L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, published an editorial this week dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II, recalling that his election marked an historic milestone since he was the first Slavic successor of St. Peter.
In his editorial, Vian wrote that “on the afternoon of October 16, 1978, thirty years ago, the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla marked a true turn in the history of the succession of the Roman chair. After almost half a millennium, since the time of Adrian VI (1522—1523), the College of Cardinals chose as Bishop of Rome a cardinal who was not of Italian origin. And for the first time in history, a Slav became Pontiff.”