If you’ve ever looked at the line of succession for the papacy in the 20th century, things get a bit dizzying around the late seventies. Most people remember 1978 as the "Year of the Three Popes." It was a wild, exhausting time for the Vatican. But if you’re specifically asking who was pope before John Paul 1, the answer is Pope Paul VI.
He isn't always the first name that comes to mind for casual history buffs. He sort of gets squeezed between the "Good Pope" John XXIII and the massive, globe-trotting superstar status of John Paul II. Honestly, it's a bit unfair. Paul VI reigned for fifteen years, and he was the guy who had to actually do the hard work of modernization. He wasn't just a placeholder; he was the man who steered the Church through the cultural earthquake of the 1960s.
The man who took over a revolution
Giovanni Battista Montini—that was his name before he became Paul VI—didn't have an easy start. He was elected in 1963 right in the middle of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). His predecessor, John XXIII, had opened the windows to "let in some fresh air," but then he passed away before the house was actually cleaned.
Paul VI inherited a Church that was essentially in the middle of a massive identity crisis. Imagine taking over a Fortune 500 company while the entire board of directors is arguing about whether the product should even exist anymore. That was his life. He had to finish the Council. He had to figure out how to keep the traditionalists from walking out while satisfying the reformers who wanted to change everything overnight.
He was intellectual. Brilliant, actually. But he didn't have that grandfatherly warmth that John XXIII had. People often saw him as Hamlet—indecisive and plagued by doubt. In reality, he was just incredibly cautious because he knew that one wrong move could cause a permanent schism in the Catholic Church.
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Changing the Mass and the world
The biggest thing he did? He changed how the Mass was celebrated. Before him, you went to church and heard Latin. After him, you heard your own language. This was the "Novus Ordo," and it’s basically why the modern Catholic experience looks the way it does.
But it wasn't just about language. Paul VI was a traveler. Before him, popes basically stayed in the Vatican like prisoners of their own making. He broke that mold. He went to the Holy Land. He went to India. He even came to the United Nations in New York in 1965 and gave that famous, desperate plea: "No more war, war never again!" He was trying to position the papacy as a moral authority for the whole world, not just for Catholics.
It’s interesting to note that his travel wasn't always safe. In 1970, someone actually tried to stab him at the airport in Manila. He was wounded, but he kept going with the scheduled events. That tells you a lot about his grit. He wasn't some fragile academic; he was a man who felt a massive weight on his shoulders and refused to drop it.
The Humanae Vitae fallout
You can't talk about who was pope before John Paul 1 without mentioning the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. This is the document that reaffirmed the Church's ban on artificial birth control. If you want to know why there is such a divide between the Vatican and many lay Catholics today, this is the ground zero.
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The "Birth Control Commission" he set up actually recommended that the Church allow the pill. Most people expected him to say yes. When he said no, it was a bombshell. It cost him a huge amount of popularity in the West. It made him look like he was retreating into the past just as the world was moving forward. For the last ten years of his papacy, he seemed increasingly lonely and burdened by the criticism coming from both the left and the right.
The end of an era in 1978
By the time 1978 rolled around, Paul VI was old and tired. He had watched his close friend, Italian politician Aldo Moro, be kidnapped and murdered by the Red Brigades. He actually presided over Moro’s funeral, looking absolutely shattered. He died in August of that year at Castel Gandolfo.
Then came the short, smiling reign of John Paul I.
John Paul I chose his name specifically to honor his two predecessors: John XXIII and Paul VI. It was a "double name," the first in papal history. He wanted to combine the progressive spirit of John with the steady, intellectual leadership of Paul. It’s a beautiful sentiment, but as we know, John Paul I only lasted 33 days before his own sudden death.
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Why Paul VI matters now
We tend to look back at the 1960s and 70s as a blur of color and chaos. In the context of the papacy, Paul VI was the bridge. He was the one who took the ancient traditions and tried to translate them into a world of space travel, nuclear threats, and sexual revolutions.
- He modernized the bureaucracy: He got rid of much of the "court" fluff around the papacy, like the Noble Guard and the Palatine Guard.
- He reached out to other religions: He was the first pope in centuries to meet with the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch, famously embracing him in Jerusalem.
- He focused on the poor: His encyclical Populorum Progressio basically argued that the economy should serve people, not the other way around.
If you’re looking into the history of the papacy, don't just skip over him. He was the architect of the modern Church. Every time you see a pope on a plane or hear a Mass in English, you’re seeing the footprint of Paul VI.
Moving forward with this history
If you want to understand the modern Vatican, start by reading the "Credo of the People of God" which Paul VI issued in 1968. It shows his attempt to anchor the Church during a storm. You should also look into the documents of Vatican II—specifically Lumen Gentium—to see how he redefined what the Church actually is. Understanding the man who came before John Paul I isn't just a trivia fact; it’s the key to understanding why the Catholic Church looks the way it does today. Check out the digital archives at the Vatican website or the "Paul VI Institute" for deep dives into his private letters, which reveal a much more tortured and human figure than the public images usually suggest.