August 1978 conclave

A conclave was held on 25 and 26 August 1978 to elect a new pope to succeed Paul VI, who had died on 6 August 1978. Of the 114 eligible cardinal electors, all but three attended. On the fourth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Albino Luciani, the patriarch of Venice. After accepting his election, he took the name John Paul I.

The first of the two conclaves held that same year, it was the first conclave since the promulgation of Ingravescentem aetatem (1970), which made cardinals who had reached the age of 80 by the day the conclave began ineligible to participate in the balloting. There were 15 cardinals excluded by that rule. The number of votes cast for Luciani on the final ballot was so great that even a theoretical uniform opposition of these 15 cardinals would not have changed the outcome.

Papabili

Among the papabili, or top candidates, were President of the Secretariat for Non-Christians Sergio Pignedoli, Giuseppe Siri of Genoa, and Corrado Ursi of Naples. Others named Giovanni Benelli of Florence, until recently Vatican deputy secretary of state; Sebastiano Baggio, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; and non-cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero, archbishop of Turin. The non-Italian most often mentioned was Johannes Willebrands, archbishop of Utrecht. Aloísio Lorscheider of Brazil, head of the Episcopal Conference of Latin America, favoured Albino Luciani, the patriarch of Venice, while Luciani himself was believed to have favoured Lorscheider.