Text of pope's last will and
testament
Thursday,
April 7, 2005
VATICAN
CITY (AP) -- The following is the Vatican information service's English
translation of the official Italian translation of the text of Pope
John Paul II's last will and testament, which was originally written in
Polish, dated March 6, 1979, with successive additions:
The testament
of 6.3.1979 (March 6, 1979)
"Totus Tuus
ego sum" (Latin for "I am all Yours")
In the Name of
the Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
"Watch
therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (cf.
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. (Here is a note in the margin: burial in the bare
earth, not in a sarcophagus, 13.3.92) (March 13, 1992).
"Apud
Dominum misericordia et copiosa apud Eum redemptio." (Latin for "With
the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful redemption.")
John Paul pp.
II
Rome,
6.III.1979 (March 6, 1979)
After my death
I ask for Masses and prayers.
5.III.1990
(March 5, 1990)
------
(Undated sheet
of paper)
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.
24.II-1.III.1980
(February 24 - March 1, 1980)
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
6.III.1979 (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 --7 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
------
Totus Tuus ego
sum 5.III.1982 (March 5, 1982)
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 (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 (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) (February 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)
John Paul pp.II
------
5.III.82
(March 5, 1982)
In
connection with the last sentence in my testament of 6.III.1979 (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.
------
2. 1.III.1985
(March 1, 1985) (during the spiritual exercises)
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.
JPII
------
Spiritual
exercise of the Jubilee Year 2000 (12-18.III) (March 12-18).
(Vatican
notation: "for my testament")
1.
When, on October 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 October 16, 1978. As I write these words, the Jubilee
Year 2000 is already a reality. The night of December 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 January 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
October 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 6-III-1979 (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" (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"
(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.")
A.D.
17.III.2000 (March 17, 2000)
JOHN PAUL II:
TESTAMENT
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