During these days, when Garry Wills' book, "Papal Sin," is stirring up Catholics, both here and across the pond, it might prove helpful to take a look at a pope whose integrity was unquestioned in his lifetime, and remains so to this day; namely, Pope John Paul I.

I knew he'd be there, of course, between the covers of "Pontiff" by Thomas and Morgan-Witts, and "In God's Name" by David Yallop.

I just didn't know there would be that much to him - all that genuine Christianity in the open for world to see - among the purple and gold the Michaelangelos and Raphaels, the politicians and financial wizards. Right on the throne of Peter.

Somehow, he didn't seem to belong. The man with the ready smile the heart of steel for hard decisions, the heart of compassion for little people. This stranger to intrigue.

Yet, the more I studied, the more convinced I became that Albino Luciani's entire life was a preparation for those brief 33 days as Pope John Paul I.

He had been nurtured in poverty, and never forgot what that was like. As he moved from being an unknown cleric to becoming bishop of Vittorio Veneto, he gently refused all gifts with these words, "I came without five lire. I want to leave without five lire."

An incident in Vittorio Veneto shows his attitude toward clerics and civil law. In August of 1962, two priests had become involved in a financial scandal resulting in loss of two billion lire to small savers.

Yallop tells us that Luciani called his four hundred priests together, told them the entire story, and promised that the money would be returned. He said, "It is true that two of us have done wrong. I believe the diocese must pay. I also believe that the law must run its due course. We must not hide behind any immunity. In this scandal there is a lesson for us all. We must be a poor church. I intend to sell our ecclesiastical treasure. I further intend to sell one of our buildings. The money will be used to return every single lire that these priests owe. I ask for your agreement."

The property speculator responsible for the scandal committed suicide before his trial.. One priest served a one-year prison sentence, and the other priest was acquitted. The future pope had maintained his integrity.

While a spirit of poverty revealed Luciani's attitude toward money, compassion made him one with his people. He visited the sick, the poor; he stopped in to talk with his priests, to listen to their problems, to encourage their dreams. His office door was always open, his welcome always warm.

In February, 1970, again "without five lire,' he became Archbishop of Venice and continued his way of life. On behalf of the retarded and handicapped he sought a low-interest loan from the Banca Catolica del Vento to build special work centers, only to be told that the bank had been sold to Robert Calvi by the president of the Vatican Bank, Bishop Paul Marcinkus.

Although the Vatican Bank owned 51 percent of the shares, various dioceses in the region owned five percent and considered Banca Cattolica their bank. It had been sold without their knowledge, through Bishop Marcinkus to the benefit of all concerned but the priests and poor of the diocese of Venice.

Pope John Paul I carried his spirit of poverty and humility straight to the halls of the Vatican. No time for a papal coronation; he would become pope during a simple Mass. No need for a chair to be carried on; he would walk. There would be no tiara covered with precious jewels. A woolen stole over his shoulders would tell all who cared to know that he was still the shepherd; his flock had simply grown to eight hundred million Roman Catholic Christians.

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