The 27-year pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II left an indelible mark on the hearts of his former collaborators at the Vatican. Even with the passage of time, they vividly recall the profound privilege of living and working alongside a saint.
Fr. Pawel Ptasznik, Head of the Polish section of the Vatican’s Secretary of State, recounts, “He was a very simple man, kind-hearted, tender, and sensitive, and that’s what truly delighted us about him. Participating in his prayers was also an encouragement to remain committed and support the Holy Father, but we saw him more as a father than as a saint.”
The polish priest, Father Pawel Ptasznik, worked for John Paul II for more than a decade.
“When the Holy Father was preparing his texts,” Fr. Pawel explains, “whether they were homilies or documents, he used to simply dictate them and then I wrote them down sitting next to him. When in 1994 he fell and broke his arm he couldn’t prepare his texts anymore so he was suggested to start dictating and so we started at ten in the morning he used to come after meditation which he would start right after breakfast, and he dictated in full sentences. The text written down was usually put out right away.”
Revolutionizing Vatican Communication and Spreading the Faith
With his words and voice, John Paul II sought to reach the farthest corners of the globe, revolutionizing Vatican communication and Vatican Radio in the process. Umberto Civitarese, who dedicated 44 years to Vatican Radio, recalls, “John Paul II was the one who gave the impetus to Vatican Radio in those years and a lot of new staff was hired. He pushed hard for Vatican Radio’s programming. It achieved more than 50 languages. Then it was a particular radio, comparable to Voice of America, or Radio Moscow, just a great radio that broadcast all over the world and thanks to John Paul II in those years it reached the height of radio broadcasting.”
Civitarese, who oversaw the papal inflight press conferences and accompanied John Paul II on approximately 60 trips around the world recounts a powerful memory: “trip to Mali when after the whole day spent seeing the slums and huge urban agglomerations under a suffocating heat and a very long Mass in the stadium, once we got back to the nunciature everybody was looking for some refreshment and for the rest. And the Holy Father got down on his knees to pray in the Chapel, alone. And he prayed there and prayed and prayed.”
Prayer was the mainstream of his entire existence.
“He was a man of prayer and every moment when he wasn’t busy with work he devoted to prayer and even sometimes during dictation of his texts he used to close his eyes and for a moment the dictation stopped, I could see that he was praying and praying deeply,” Fr. Pawel shares.
John Paul II prayed constantly for specific individuals, asking his secretaries to place written prayer requests inside the kneeler in his private chapel.
“He had a kind of geography of prayer,” Fr. Pawel describes, “each day he prayed for one part of the Church throughout the world for its particular community and at the same time he tried to remember in what context that community was living. The bishops who came to visit him were sometimes surprised that the Holy Father was so up to date as far as their local Church was concerned.”
Overcoming Physical Limitations with Determination and Faith
As the years passed, the Pope increasingly relied on the assistance of those around him in the Vatican.
Paolo Sagretti leads a team within a little-known institution working behind the scenes: La Floreria Apostolica. This office manages the logistics that make the grand papal ceremonies possible. Sagretti served John Paul II in his daily ministry for nearly 20 years, remaining by his side until the very end.
Paolo Sagretti explains, “He was able to celebrate Mass until his last days because of what we managed to create for him: special chairs and platforms, which were raised by dynamic or electric pistons, they allowed him to do the elevation when he was celebrating Mass, in the time he was already very ill and disabled, it helped him to participate in the ceremonies.”
One of the most exciting events towards the end of the pontificate was the World Youth Day of 2000 in Tor Vergata in Rome.
Sagretti continues, “The Pope absolutely wanted to take part, a special lift was made to lift him up and take him to the right height because the stage was very high, he had to look down on a million people. I remember the moment, the event was about to begin, when the Pope came behind the scenes and he wanted to walk upstairs on his own, I mean with his walking stick, but still with huge difficulties. He impressed me because he couldn’t go forward, he gave a blow with this stick, because he got angry with himself that he couldn’t go forward.”
John Paul II remained resolute until his final days. Despite immense physical suffering, he was determined to stay close to people and continue spreading the love of God everywhere.
“There was that charm,” Civitarese describes, “that somewhat special aura, something unattainable about him that we could experience being next to him.”
On the day of his funeral, all proclaimed his sainthood, convinced that he continues to embrace all of humanity from the window of the Father’s House.
Adapted by Jacob Stein
