Pope´s Last Book
These were some of the most personal, emotional passages from the book by the Pope, in which he writes for the first time about his feelings in the hours after the May 13, 1981, assassination attempt. A Turkish gunman shot John Paul II as he rode in an open car through St. Peter´s Square at the Vatican. Pope died on 2nd April 2005 at the age of 84, after 26-year reign as pontiff. John Paul II was remembered Saturday as a "champion of human freedom," a "tireless advocate of peace" and a man with a "wonderful sense of humor" who was easy to talk to a leader who led the world's 1 billion Catholic.
The 227-page book, "Memory and Identity," is the fifth and latest in this prolific pope´s repertoire, and its Italian publisher, Rizzoli, will be released English and other translations. "Memory and Identity" was based on conversations between the pope and several Polish academics, the book is essentially a papal reflection on the ideological struggles that played out in Europe over the last 100 years and their significance for the 21st century.
In the epilogue, a chapter titled "Someone Guided the Bullet," his companions ask the pope about the shooting. He reiterates his belief that divine intervention caused the bullet to avoid his vital organs. The pope says he remembered the rush to the hospital. "For some time I remained conscious," he writes. "I had a feeling I was going to survive. I suffered, and that was a reason for fear, but I had this strange feeling of confidence."
John Paul told his trusted secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was with him when he was shot, that he forgave the would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca. Two years later, at Christmas, the pope visited Agca in a Rome prison. During a long conversation, the pope recounts, the gunman seemed mystified that he had failed to kill his prey.
"As everyone says, Agca is a professional killer, which means that the assassination was not his initiative, that someone else thought of it, someone told him to do it," the pope writes. The Pope writes that Agca´s confusion led the gunman to understand that a higher power can govern even his actions.
In this book, The Holy Father also speaks of a new type of totalitarianism that threatens basic human values by promoting moral permissiveness, abortion, euthanasia, genetic manipulation, contraception and divorce. He warns that despite the failed ideologies and tragic lessons of the 20th century modern society still acts as if it can determine good and evil without reference to God. "If man can decide alone, without God, what is good and what is evil, then he can also decide to exterminate a category of human beings," the he wrote.
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Book Maker favours Nigerian Pope
Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria has been installed as favourite, with a given odds of 11-4, to become the next pope by Ireland´s biggest bookmaker, Paddy Power Bookmakers. Cardinal Arinze, age 73, is currently the only African (black) cardinal in the Roman Curia. German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, 77, who has been touted as a possible "transition pope", has been given odds of 6-1 while Italian Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi is at 4-1. The conclave to choose a successor to John Paul II, chaired by Ratzinger, is due to begin in the Sistine Chapel on 18 April 2005 and new Pope elected in secret shortly thereafter.
By the way, Paddy Power bet for "The Next Pope - Who Will Be The Next Pope?" closes on 2005-04-18 09:00 GMT. On 2005-04-19 6:04 p.m Vatican Time the white smoke appears and the Vatican bell rang, Joseph Ratzinger of Germany appeared Tuesday on a Vatican balcony as the 265th pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI (16th). Along with the new appointment, he got a new e-mail address benedictxvi@vatican.va. So to the putters, who betted on Cardinal Josef Ratzinger in the words of Pope John Paul II, "May God reward you".
Pope John Paul II´s Last Will
The following is the Vatican information service´s English translation of the official Italian translation of Pope's will. As recorded on 6 March 1979, 1 March 1980, 5 March 1982 and 17 March 2000. The document, written in several entries over 22 years, provides an insight into the pope's thinking in the twilight of his life as he reflected on death and his legacy, and as he prayed for the "strength" to continue his mission. His last entry was "To all I want to say just one thing: May God reward you."
John Paul II (The Millennial Pope) wrote this will from the Vatican: After my death I ask for Masses and prayers. "Totus Tuus ego sum" (Latin for I am completely in Your hands). In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
"Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (Matthew 24, 42) - these words remind me of the last call, which will happen at the moment the Lord wishes. I desire to follow Him, and I desire that everything making up part of my earthly life should prepare me for this moment. I do not know when the moment will come, but like everything else, I place it too in the hands of the Mother of my Master: Totus Tuus. In the same maternal Hands I leave everything and everyone with whom my life and vocation have linked me. In these Hands I leave, above all, the Church, as well as my Nation and all humanity. I thank everyone. Of everyone I ask forgiveness. I also ask for prayer, that the Mercy of God may appear greater than my weakness and unworthiness.
During the spiritual exercises I reread the testament of the Holy Father Paul VI. That reading prompted me to write this testament. I leave no property behind me of which it is necessary to dispose. As for the everyday objects that were of use to me, I ask they be distributed as seems appropriate. My personal notes are to be burned. I ask that this be attended to by Father Stanislaw (his personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz), whom I thank for his collaboration and help, so prolonged over the years and so understanding. As for all other thanks, I leave them in my heart before God Himself, because it is difficult to express them.
As for the funeral, I repeat the same dispositions as were given by the Holy Father Paul VI.
"Apud Dominum misericordia et copiosa apud Eum redemptio." (Latin for With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful redemption.)
John Paul II
Rome, March 6, 1979
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I express my profound trust that, despite all my weakness, the Lord will grant me all the grace necessary to face according to His will any task, trial or suffering that He will ask of His servant, in the course of his life. I also trust that He will never allow me - through some attitude of mine: words, deeds or omissions - to betray my obligations in this holy Petrine See.
Also during these spiritual exercises, I have reflected on the truth of the Priesthood of Christ in the perspective of that Transit that for each of us is the moment of our own death. For us the Resurrection of Christ is an eloquent (Vatican notation: added above, decisive) sign of departing from this world - to be born in the next, in the future world.
I have read, then, the copy of my testament from last year, also written during the spiritual exercises - I compared it with the testament of my great predecessor and Father, Paul VI, with that sublime witness to death of a Christian and a Pope - and I have renewed within me an awareness of the questions to which the copy of March 6, 1979 refers, prepared by me in a somewhat provisional way.
Today I wish to add only this: that each of us must bear in mind the prospect of death. And must be ready to present himself before the Lord and Judge - Who is at the same time Redeemer and Father. I too continually take this into consideration, entrusting that decisive moment to the Mother of Christ and of the Church - to the Mother of my hope.
The times in which we live are unutterably difficult and disturbed. The path of the Church has also become difficult and tense, a characteristic trial of these times - both for the Faithful and for Pastors. In some Countries (as, for example, in those about which I read during the spiritual exercises), the Church is undergoing a period of such persecution as to be in no way lesser than that of early centuries, indeed it surpasses them in its degree of cruelty and hatred. "Sanguis martyrum - semen christianorum" (Latin for Blood of the martyrs - seeds of Christians). And apart from this - many people die innocently even in this Country in which we are living.
Once again, I wish to entrust myself totally to the Lord´s grace. He Himself will decide when and how I must end my earthly life and pastoral ministry. In life and in death, Totus Tuus in Mary Immaculate. Accepting that death, even now, I hope that Christ will give me the grace for the final passage, in other words (Vatican notation: ''my´´) Easter. I also hope that He makes (Vatican notation: ''that death´´) useful for this more important cause that I seek to serve: the salvation of men and women, the safeguarding of the human family and, in that, of all nations and all peoples (among them, I particularly address my earthly Homeland), and useful for the people with whom He particularly entrusted me, for the question of the Church, for the glory of God Himself.
I do not wish to add anything to what I wrote a year ago - only to express this readiness and, at the same time, this trust, to which the current spiritual exercises have again disposed me.
John Paul II
March 1, 1980
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In the course of this year´s spiritual exercises I have read (a number of times) the text of the testament of 6.III.1979 (Eds: March 6, 1979). Although I still consider it provisional (not definitive), I leave it in the form in which it exists. I change nothing (for now), and neither do I add anything, as concerns the dispositions contained therein.
The attempt upon my life on 13.V.1981 (Eds: May 13, 1981) in some way confirmed the accuracy of the words written during the period of the spiritual exercises of 1980 (24.II-1.III) (Eds: Feb. 24-March 1).
All the more deeply I now feel that I am totally in the Hands of God - and I remain continually at the disposal of my Lord, entrusting myself to Him in His Immaculate Mother (Totus Tuus)
In connection with the last sentence in my testament of March 6, 1979 "concerning the site / that is, the site of the funeral / let the College of Cardinals and Compatriots decide" - I will make it clear that I have in mind: the metropolitan of Krakow or the General Council of the Episcopate of Poland. In the meantime I ask the College of Cardinals to satisfy, as far as possible, any demands of the above-mentioned.
Again - as regards the expression College of Cardinals and Compatriots: the "College of Cardinals" has no obligation to consult "Compatriots" on this subject, however it can do so, if for some reason it feels it is right to do so.
John Paul II
March 1, 1985
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1. When, on Oct. 16, 1978, the conclave of cardinals chose John Paul II, the primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski told me: ''The duty of the new Pope will be to introduce the Church into the Third Millennium. I don´t know if I am repeating this sentence exactly, but at least this was the sense of what I heard at the time. This was said by the Man who entered history as the primate of the Millennium. A great primate. I was a witness to his mission, to his total entrustment. To his battles. To his victory. Victory, when it comes, will be a victory through Mary - The primate of the Millennium used to repeat these words of his predecessor, Cardinal August Hlond. In this way I was prepared in some manner for the duty that presented itself to me on Oct. 16, 1978. As I write these words, the Jubilee Year 2000 is already a reality. The night of Dec. 24, 1999, the symbolic Door of the Great Jubilee in the Basilica of St. Peter´s was opened, then that of St. John Lateran, then St. Mary Major - on New Year´s, and on Jan. 19, the Door of the Basilica of St. Paul´s Outside-the-Walls. This last event, given its ecumenical character, has remained impressed in my memory in a special way.
2. As the Jubilee Year progressed, day by day the 20th century closes behind us and the 21st century opens. According to the plans of Divine Providence, I was allowed to live in the difficult century that is retreating into the past, and now, in the year in which my life reaches 80 years (octogesima adveniens), it is time to ask oneself if it is not the time to repeat with the biblical Simeone "nunc dimittis" (Latin for Now Master you may let your servant go.) On May 13, 1981, the day of the attack on the Pope during the general audience in St. Peter´s Square, Divine Providence saved me in a miraculous way from death. The One Who is the Only Lord of life and death Himself prolonged my life, in a certain way He gave it to me again. From that moment it belonged to Him even more. I hope He will help me to recognize up to what point I must continue this service to which I was called on Oct. 16, 1978. I ask him to call me back when He Himself wishes. "In life and in death we belong to the Lord ... we are the Lord´s." (cf. Romans 14,8). I also hope that, as long as I am called to fulfill the Petrine service in the Church, the Mercy of God will give me the necessary strength for this service.
3. As I do every year during spiritual exercises, I read my testament from March 6, 1979. I continue to maintain the dispositions contained in this text. What then, and even during successive spiritual exercises, has been added constitutes a reflection of the difficult and tense general situation which marked the ´80s. From autumn of the year 1989, this situation changed. The last decade of the century was free of the previous tensions; that does not mean that it did not bring with it new problems and difficulties. In a special way may Divine Providence be praised for this, that the period of the so-called "cold war" ended without violent nuclear conflict, the danger of which weighed on the world in the preceding period.
4. Being on the threshold of the third millennium ''in medio Ecclesiae´´ (Eds: Latin for 'inside the Church´´) I wish once again to express gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the great gift of Vatican Council II, to which, together with the entire Church - and above all the entire episcopacy - I feel indebted. I am convinced that for a long time to come the new generations will draw upon the riches that this Council of the 20th century gave us. As a bishop who participated in this conciliar event from the first to the last day, I wish to entrust this great patrimony to all those who are and who will be called in the future to realize it. For my part I thank the eternal Pastor Who allowed me to serve this very great cause during the course of all the years of my pontificate. "In medio Ecclesiae" ... from the first years of my service as a bishop - precisely thanks to the Council - I was able to experience the fraternal communion of the Episcopacy. As a priest of the Archdiocese of Krakow, I experienced the fraternal communion among priests - and the Council opened a new dimension to this experience.
5. How many people should I list! Probably the Lord God has called to Himself the majority of them - as to those who are still on this side, may the words of this testament recall them, everyone and everywhere, wherever they are. During the more than 20 years that I am fulfilling the Petrine service "in medio Ecclesiae" I have experienced the benevolence and even more the fecund collaboration of so many cardinals, archbishops and bishops, so many priests, so many consecrated persons - brothers and sisters - and, lastly, so very, very many lay persons, within the Curia, in the vicariate of the diocese of Rome, as well as outside these milieux. How can I not embrace with grateful memory all the bishops of the world whom I have met in ''ad limina Apostolorum´´ (Eds: a reference to required, periodic visits)! How can I not recall so many non-Catholic Christian brothers! And the rabbi of Rome and so many representatives of non -Christian religions! And how many representatives of the world of culture, science, politics, and of the means of social communication!
6. As the end of my life approaches I return with my memory to the beginning, to my parents, to my brother, to the sister (I never knew because she died before my birth), to the parish in Wadowice, where I was baptized, to that city I love, to my peers, friends from elementary school, high school and the university, up to the time of the occupation when I was a worker, and then in the parish of Niegowic, then St. Florian´s in Krakow, to the pastoral ministry of academics, to the milieu of ... to all milieux ... to Krakow and to Rome ... to the people who were entrusted to me in a special way by the Lord.
To all I want to say just one thing...
"May God reward you."
"In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum." (Latin for In your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit)
John Paul II
March 17, 2000
Text of the Homily at Pope´s Funeral
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Text of the homily read, in Italian, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, during the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II. Here is the official translation provided by the Vatican:
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"Follow me." The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd his flock. "Follow me" - this lapidary saying of Christ can be taken as the key to understanding the message which comes to us from the life of our late beloved Pope John Paul II. Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality - our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude.
These are the sentiments that inspire us, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, present here in St. Peter´s Square, in neighboring streets and in various other locations within the city of Rome, where an immense crowd, silently praying, has gathered over the last few days. I greet all of you from my heart. In the name of the College of Cardinals, I also wish to express my respects to Heads of State, Heads of Government and the delegations from various countries. I greet the Authorities and official representatives of other Churches and Christian Communities, and likewise those of different religions. Next I greet the Archbishops, Bishops, priests, religious men and women and the faithful who have come here from every Continent; especially the young, whom John Paul II liked to call the future and the hope of the Church. My greeting is extended, moreover, to all those throughout the world who are united with us through radio and television in this solemn celebration of our beloved Holy Father´s funeral.
Follow me - as a young student Karol Wojtyla was thrilled by literature, the theater, and poetry. Working in a chemical plant, surrounded and threatened by the Nazi terror, he heard the voice of the Lord: Follow me! In this extraordinary setting he began to read books of philosophy and theology, and then entered the clandestine seminary established by Cardinal Sapieha. After the war he was able to complete his studies in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. How often, in his letters to priests and in his autobiographical books has he spoken to us about his priesthood, to which he was ordained on Nov. 1, 1946. In these texts he interprets his priesthood with particular reference to three sayings of the Lord. First: "You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last" (John 15:16). The second saying is: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). And then: "As the father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love" (John 15:9). In these three sayings we see the heart and soul of our Holy Father. He really went everywhere, untiringly, in order to bear fruit, fruit that lasts. "Rise, Let us be on our Way!" is the title of his next-to-last book. "Rise, let us be on our way!" - with these words he roused us from a lethargic faith, from the sleep of the disciples of both yesterday and today. "Rise, let us be on our way!" he continues to say to us even today. The Holy Father was a priest to the last, for he offered his life to God for his flock and for the entire human family, in a daily self-oblation for the service of the Church, especially amid the sufferings of his final months. And this way he became one with Christ, the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep. Finally, "abide in my love:" the Pope who tried to meet everyone, who had an ability to forgive and to open his heart to all, tells us once again today, with these words of the Lord, that by abiding in the love of Christ we learn, at the school of Christ, the art of true love.
Follow me! In July 1958 the young priest Karol Wojtila began a new stage in his journey with the Lord in the footsteps of the Lord. Karol had gone to the Masuri Lakes for his usual vacation, along with a group of young people who loved canoeing. But he brought with him a letter inviting him to call on the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski. He could guess the purpose of the meeting: he was to be appointed as the auxiliary Bishop of Krakow. Leaving the academic world, leaving this challenging engagement with young people, leaving the great intellectual endeavor of striving to understand and to interpret the mystery of that creature which is man and of communicating to today´s world the Christian interpretation of our being - all this must have seemed to him like losing his very self, losing what had become the very human identity of this young priest. Follow me - Karol Wojtyla accepted the appointment for he heard in the Church´s call the voice of Christ. And then he realized how true are the Lord´s words: "Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it" (Luke 17:53). Our pope - and we all know this - never wanted to make his own life secure, to keep it for himself, he wanted to give of himself unreservedly, to the very last moment, for Christ and thus also for us. And thus he came to experience how everything which he had given over into the Lord´s hands came back to him in a new way. His love of words, of poetry, of literature became an essential part of his pastoral mission and gave his new vitality, new urgency, new attractiveness to the preaching of the Gospel, even when it is a sign of contradiction.
Follow me! In October 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla once again heard the voice of the Lord. Once more there took place that dialogue with Peter reported in the Gospel of this Mass: "Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep!´ To the Lord´s question, `Karol, do you love me?´ the archbishop of Krakow answered from the depths of his heart: "Lord, you know everything: you know that I love you." The love of Christ was the dominant force in the life of our beloved Holy Father. Anyone who ever saw him pray, who ever heard him preach, knows that. Thanks to his being profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden which transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of Christ´s flock, his universal Church. This is not the time to speak of the specific content of this rich pontificate. I would like only to read two passages of today´s liturgy which reflect the central elements of his message. In the first reading, St. Peter says - and with St. Peter, the pope himself - "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ - he is Lord of all" (Acts of the Apostles 10:34-36). And in the second reading, St. Paul - and with St. Paul, our late Pope - exhorts us, crying out: "My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved" (Philippians 4:1).
Follow me! Together with the command to feed his flock, Christ proclaimed to Peter that he would die a martyr´s death. With those words, which conclude and sum up the dialogue on the love and on the mandate of the universal shepherd, the Lord recalls another dialogue, which took place during the Last Supper. There Jesus had said: "Where I am going, you cannot come." Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied: "Where I cam going, you cannot follow me now: but you will follow me afterward." (John 13:33-36). Jesus from the Supper went toward the Cross, went toward his resurrection - he entered into the paschal mystser; and Peter could not follow him. Now - after the resurrection - comes the time, comes this "afterward." By shepherding the flock of Christ, Peter enters into the paschal mystery, he goes toward the cross and the resurrection. The Lord says this in these words: "`....when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go; (John 21:18) In the first years of his pontificate, still young and full of energy, the Holy Father went to very ends of the earth, guided by Christ. But afterward, he increasingly entered into the communion of Christ´s sufferings; increasingly he understood the truth of the words: "Someone else will fasten a belt around you." And in the very communion with the suffering Lord, tirelessly and with renewed intensity, he proclaimed the Gospel, the mystery of that love which goes to the end (John 13:1).
He interpreted for us the paschal mystery as a mystery of divine mercy. In his last book, he wrote: The limit imposed upon evil "is ultimately Divine Mercy" ("Memory and Identity," p. 60-61). And reflecting on the assassination attempt, he said: "In sacrificing himself for us all, Christ gave a new meaning to suffering, opening up a new dimension, a new order: the order of love .... It is this suffering which burns and consumes evil with the flame of love and draws forth even from sin a great flowering of good." Impelled by this vision, the Pope suffered and loved in communion with Christ, and that is why the message of his suffering and his silence proved so eloquent and so fruitful.
Divine Mercy: the Holy Father found the purest reflection of God´s mercy in the Mother of God. He who at an early age had lost his own mother, loved his divine mother all the more. He heard the words of the crucified Lord as addressed personally to him: "Behold your Mother." And so he did as the beloved disciple did: he took her into his own home;" (John 19:27)
- Totus tuus. And from the mother he learned to conform himself to Christ.
None of us can ever forget how in that last Easter Sunday of his life, the Holy Father, marked by suffering, came once more to the window of the Apostolic Palace and one last time gave his blessing urbi et orbi. We can be sure that our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father´s house, that he sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will guide you now to the eternal glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.