Source: Inside the Vatican <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Pope John Paul II Testament
VATICAN CITY, April 7, 2005 -- Here is the text of Pope John Paul II's
testament, released by the Vatican today in the early afternoon Rome time.
There is a suggestion in the letter that the Pope considered resigning in
the year 2000, the year he turned 80 and the year the second millennium
turned into the third. There is also a suggestion that he would like the
college of cardinals to consider burying him -- or perhaps a part of him,
like his heart -- in Poland.
There is no mention of any bishop or cardinal that the Pope proposes as a
good successor for him, as a rumor yesterday had suggested.
- Dr. Robert Moynihan, Editor, Inside the Vatican Magazine
==============
6.3.1979
Totus Tuus ego sum
In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
"Keep watch, because you do not know which day when the Lord will come" (cf.
Mt 24, 42) -- These words remind me of the final call, which will come the
moment that the Lord will choose. I desire to follow Him and desire that all
that is part of my earthly life shall prepare me for this moment. I do not
know when it will come, but, like all else, this moment too I place into the
hands of the Mother of My Master: Totus Tuus. In the same maternal hands I
place all those with whom my life and vocation are bound. Into these Hands I
leave above all the Church, and also my Nation and all humanity. I thank
everyone. Of everyone I ask forgiveness. I also ask prayers, so that the
Mercy of God will loom greater than my weakness and unworthiness.
During spiritual exercises I reflected upon the testament of the Holy Father
Paul VI. This study has led me to write the present testament.
I do not leave behind me any property which necessitates disposal. Regarding
those items of daily use of which I made use, I ask that they be distributed
as may appear opportune. My personal notes are to be burned. I ask that Don
Stanislaw oversees this and thank him for the collaboration and help so
prolonged over the years and so comprehensive. All other thanks, instead, I
leave in my heart before God Himself, because it is difficult to express
them.
Regarding the funeral, I repeat the same disposition given by the Holy
Father Paul VI: Burial in the bare earth, not in a tomb, 13.3.92.
Apud Dominum misericordia et copiosa apud Eum redemptio
John Paul pp.II
Rome 6.3.1979
Following my death I ask for Holy Masses and prayers
5.3.1990
___
I express the deepest faith that, despite all my weakness, the Lord will
accord me every necessary grace to face, according to His will, whatever
task, trial and suffering that will be demanded of His servant, during the
course of my life. I also have faith that never will it be permitted that,
through my behavior: by words, actions or omissions, I betray my obligations
in this holy seat of Peter.
___
24.II-1.III.1980
Also during these spiritual exercises I have reflected upon the truth of the
Priesthood of Christ in the perspective of that Crossing which is for each
one of us the moment of death. In taking leave of this world -- to be born
into the other, the future world, eloquent sign is for us the Resurrection
of Christ.
I therefore read the copy of my testament of the last year, it also made
during spiritual exercises -- I compared it with the testament of my great
Predecessor and Father Paul VI, with that sublime witness to the death of a
Christian and of a pope -- and I renewed in myself consciousness of the
questions, to which refers the copy of 6.III.1979, prepared by me (in a
rather provisional way).
Today I desire to add to it only this, that each one of us must keep in mind
the prospect of death. And must be ready to present himself before the Lord
and Judge -- and contemporaneously Redeemer and Father. Then I too can take
this into consideration continuously, 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 indescribably difficult and troubled.
Difficult and tense has become the life of the Church as well,
characteristic trial of these times -- as much for the Faithful, as much as
for the Pastors. In some Countries (as, e.g. in that one about which I was
reading during the spiritual exercises), the Church finds itself in a period
of persecution that is not inferior to those of the first centuries; on the
contrary, the degree of cruelty and hatred is greater still. Sanguis
martyrum - semen christianorum (Eds: Latin for "Blood of the martyrs --
seeds of Christians"). And beyond this -- so many people disappear
innocently, even in this Country, in which we live...
I desire once more to entrust myself totally to the mercy of the Lord. He
himself will decide when and how I must finish my earthly life and pastoral
ministry. In life and in death Totus Tuus through the Immaculate. Accepting
this death already, I hope that Christ will give me grace for my final
passage, which is Easter. I hope too that it shall be made useful also for
this important cause in which I am trying to serve: the salvation of men,
the safeguarding of the human family and of all the nations and the peoples
(among these I refer in particular to my earthly Country), useful for the
persons who in a special way have entrusted to me for the questions of the
Church, for the glory of God himself.
I do not desire to add anything to that which I wrote a year ago -- only
express this readiness and at the same time this faith, to which the present
spiritual exercises prepared me.
John Paul II
___
Totus Tuus ego sum
5.III.1982
In the course of the spiritual exercises this year I have read (several
times) the text of the testament of 6.III.1979. Notwithstanding that even
now it is to be considered as provisional (not definitive), I leave it in
its presently existing form. I change (for now) nothing, nor do I add
anything, as regards the arrangements contained within it.
The attempt on my life of 13.V.1981 has in some way confirmed the exactness
of the words written in the period of the spiritual exercises of 1980 (24.II
- 1.III).
All the more profoundly I feel myself totally in the Hands of God -- and I
remain continually at the disposition of my Lord, entrusting myself to Him
and to His Immaculate Mother (Totus Tuus).
John Paul pp. II
___
5.III.1982
In connection with the final phrase of my testament of 6.III.1979 ("About
the place/the place, that is, of the funeral/may the College of Cardinals
and Compatriots") -- I clarify what I had in mind: the metropolitan of
Krakow or the General Council of the Bishops of Poland -- I ask in the
meantime the College of Cardinals to satisfy to the extent possible the
eventual questions of the aforementioned.
___
1.III.1985 (during spiritual exercises).
Again -- concerning the expression "College of Cardinals and the
Compatriots": the "College of Cardinals" has no obligation to consult "the
Compatriots" on this question; it can, in any case, do so, if for some
reason it considers it right to do so.
JPII
___
The spiritual exercises of the Jubilee year 2000
(12-18.III)
(VATICAN'S NOTATION: "for the will")
1. When, on the day of Oct. 16, 1978, the conclave of cardinals chose John
Paul II, the Primate of Poland Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski told me: "The task
of the new pope will be to introduce the Church into the Third Millennium."
I do not know if I am repeating the phrase exactly, but at least such was
the sense of what I heard then. It was said by the Man who has passed into
history as the Primate of the Millennium. A great Primate. I was witness to
the mission, to His total entrusting of himself. To His struggles; to His
victory. "Victory, when it will come, will be a victory through Maria" --
these, the words of his Predecessor, Cardinal August Hlond, the Primate of
the Millennium was wont to repeat.
In this way I was to some degree prepared for the task which was placed
before me on Oct. 16, 1978. As I write these words, the Jubilee Year of 2000
is already a reality, and under way. The night of Dec. 24, 1999, the
symbolic Door of the Great Jubilee of the Basilica of St. Peter was opened,
and successively that of St. John Lateran, then St. Mary Major's on New
Year's Eve; and on Jan. 19, the Door of the Basilica of St. Paul "Outside
the Walls." This latter event, given its ecumenical character, has remained
particularly engraved in memory.
2. To the degree that the Jubilee Year 2000 goes forward, closing behind us
day by day is the 20th century, while the 21st century opens. In accordance
with the designs of Providence, it was granted to me to live during the
difficult century that is passing, and now, in the year during which my age
reaches 80 years ("octogesima adveniens"), it is necessary to ask if it is
not the time to repeat the words of the Biblical Simeon, "Nunc dimittis."
On May 13, 1981, the day of the attempt upon the life of the Pope during the
general audience in St. Peter's Square, Divine Providence saved me from
death in a miraculous way. He who is the sole Savior of life and of death,
Himself prolonged this life, and in a certain way gave it to me anew. From
this moment it belongs to Him all the more. I hope that He will help me to
recognize the time until when I must continue this service, to which he
called me on the day of Oct. 16, 1978. I ask (Him) to call me when He wants.
"In life and in death we belong to the Lord.... we are of the Lord" (cf
Romans 14, 8). I hope too that throughout the time given me to carry out the
service of Peter in the Church, the Mercy of God will lend me the necessary
strength for this service.
3. As I do every year during spiritual exercises I read my testament from
6-III-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" 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" 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."
A.D. 17.III.2000
