JOHN PAUL II'S SPIRITUAL TESTAMENT
VATICAN CITY, APR 7, 2005 (VIS) - Following is the text of the spiritual
testament of John Paul II, which was released today in an Italian
translation of the original Polish. The translation from Italian into
English has been done by VIS:
The testament of 6.3.1979
(and successive additions)
"Totus Tuus ego sum"
In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
"Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming"
(cf. Mt 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 re-read 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 Fr. Stanislaw, 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).
"apud Dominum misericordia
et copiosa apud Eum redemptio"
John Paul pp. II
Rome, 6.III.1979
After my death I ask for Masses and prayers.
5.III.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
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 (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 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.".
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 (my) Easter. I also hope that He makes (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
Totus Tuus ego sum
5.III.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. 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 in some way confirmed the accuracy
of the words written during the period of the spiritual exercises of 1980
(24.II - 1.III).
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
In connection with the last sentence in my testament of 6.III.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.
1.III.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)
(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'.
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. Rm 14,8). I also
hope that, as long as I am called to fulfil 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. 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 Eighties. 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
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