The starkly empty red shoes on the cover of this week's TIME were those of Pope John Paul I, who died so suddenly last week and brought crisis once again to the Roman Catholic Church. Our cover story is TIME'S 15th on the papacy, a series that began on June 16,1924, with Pope Pius XI.

Covering religion in depth has been a special charge of TIME since the magazine began in 1923 and Co-Founder Henry Luce wrote that religious currents were "more important perhaps than Farm Blocs or youthful novelists, [and] are lost sight of by the reader of the daily press. TIME will at least make an attempt to follow them."

Five Popes have reigned Pius XI (1924) since TIME was started, and each of them has appeared at least twice on the magazine's cover.

Each story discussed the church as well as the man, chronicling emerging theology and internal discord as well as papal deeds. We always tried, however, to find the detail or anecdote that would humanize each Bishop of Rome for our readers. Thus we reported that Pope Pius XI, a scholar, took special delight in mechanical contraptions and gladly accepted the gift of a dictating machine from Thomas Edison. The ascetic Pope Pius XII allowed a pet goldfinch, named Gretel, to perch on his arm each morning as he shaved. And on busy days in his office, the formal Pope Paul VI often doffed his cassock and worked in shirtsleeves.

The reign of Pope John XXIII perhaps best reflects TIME'S commitment to report with equal journalistic curiosity on both the man and his church. Appearing on our cover four times during his five-year reign, John's humble character and bold deeds demanded intensive coverage. By convening the Second Vatican Council, as the 1963 Man of the Year cover explained, John "created history in a different dimension than that of the most dramatic headline of the year," which was the Cuban missile crisis.

The death of John Paul last week, after only 33 days as Pope, left the world stunned, and prompted TIME'S third cover story on the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church in two months. Whoever is elected as John Paul's successor, and wherever he leads his church, TIME will report on the man and his achievements with the vigor that Henry Luce, half a century ago, felt they deserved.

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