Love is a Journey is the remarkable story of Albino Luciani, known to the world as Pope John Paul I, from his harrowing birth to his tragic death just 33 days into his 1978 pontificate—the shortest pontificate in history. After years of dedicated archival research, and after interviewing dozens of figures in the Catholic hierarchy, as well as Pope John Paul I’s niece, author Mo Guernon explores Luciani’s family history, personality, and character to reveal the very essence of the man who became known as the Smiling Pope. Guernon analyzes Luciani’s major public pronouncements and his most significant writings, which shed considerable light on his fundamental beliefs and worldview. In the concluding chapters of the book Guernon assesses Pope John Paul I’s legacy and journey toward sainthood—and the beguiling question of how the Catholic Church might have evolved had his pontificate endured through the 1980s and beyond.

The events of Luciani’s life are so compelling, so remarkable, so fast moving, that the narrative reads like a novel. Guernon paints a multi-dimensional portrait of the man that prominently displays his virtues and shortcomings, successes and failures, heroic deeds and personal doubts about his own courage. He highlights Luciani’s progressive views of issues of his time, the crises in his personal and priestly life, his discomfort with the spotlight and his anxiety about succeeding the popular Pope Paul VI, the relative simplicity of his inauguration as pope, and the unprecedented power he wielded on those with whom he came into contact both personally and through the mass media. Above all, Guernon attempts to capture the pope’s mysterious ability to engender love among people of all faiths, and nonbelievers too, with his inimitable humility and almost divine smile. A striking example of his influence came from punk rocker Patti Smith, who was so enamored of Luciani that she wrote a song about the pope and dedicated her 1979 album, Wave, to him.

Pope John Paul I’s impact on the world during his 33-day pontificate was simultaneously profound and perplexing—and, until now, underappreciated. In little more than a month, the Luciani dazzled people of all ages, races, and nations while modernizing the papacy and establishing an ambitious agenda for promoting peace and dialogue among all peoples, a program subsequently carried out by his successors, particularly Pope Francis. And in fact Pope Francis established the Vatican Pope John Paul I Foundation in memory of his beloved mentor.

Never has a world leader accomplished so much in so little time.