Posted on 09/18/2005 1:43:03 PM PDT by RWR8189
Pope John Paul II's last words before his death were "let me go to the house of the Father", according to documents released by the Vatican.
His words were spoken in his native Polish to aides hours before he died last April.
They are preserved in a new 220-page volume which chronicles the last two months of the late pontiff's life.
It is the first time the Vatican has published such a detailed account of any pope's final moments.
Parkinson's
Correspondents say the report is an unprecedented move, as the death of a pope has always been surrounded by secrecy.
The book is to go on sale shortly as a supplement to the Vatican's official journal, Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
It has entries in chronological order, starting in 31 January, the day the Holy See announced the pope's audiences were being suspended due to illness.
One entry on 24 February, says John Paul's convalescence was hampered by "very difficult swallowing", speech difficulties and "nutritional deficit and marked weakness".
Doctors have said some of those symptoms were consequences of the progression of Parkinson's disease, which the 84-year-old pontiff suffered from for years.
In the days leading up to his death, another entry describes the pope feeling a "sudden chill and violent shaking" during Mass. His temperature quickly rose to nearly 40C.
According to the Vatican account, the pope uttered his final words at 1530 on 2 April. "A little before 7pm, he went into a coma," it said.
"According to a Polish tradition, a small, lit candle illuminated the twilight of the room, where the Pope was expiring."
The Vatican announced John Paul's time of death as 2137.
I heard that the Pope leaned up from his deathbed, grabbed an attending cardinal by the cassock and whispered his last words, "What.. what is the answer?"
The cardinal looked startled and replied, "What was the question?"
Poor old guy. I'm glad he's in the House of the Father now, and not suffering anymore -- though we'll miss him.
Had to laugh at the "Oh, shut up" line, Markey.
Anyone else ever think of what you'd like your last words to be? I have. We probably won't have much control over it, being half out of our minds with pain -- or delirium. Hope mine aren't hurtful to anyone -- or worse, a stream of profanities. :-(
What an ignorant comment. It speaks volumes about you.
Truth hurts, huh?
Dagnabbit, I had "rat farts" in the pool...
For real? It was not only the first sentence of the piece, it was in bold.
It could have been worse. One recalls the Confederate general whose last words were, "There's no way they can hit us from that dist---".
She's not hurt in the least, as there is no truth in what you said.
So it's not true that the catholic church has protected child molesters?
"So long, and thanks for all the fish."
"I'll put in a good word for the new guy."
"At least I'll never live to see another JLo movie."
"If John Kerry is a good Catholic I'll eat my hat."
"I go now to be with the Father...the rest of you will just have to wait your turn."
It's not true that he had anyting to do with it. Which of course you knew before your initial post.
Actually, the truth is quite liberating.
"When the Rev. Jerry Falwell sued Flynt after Hustler published a cartoon insinuating Falwell committed incest, the media covered the story in detail. After Clinton was caught in an affair with Monica Lewinsky, the media had to figure out how to cover it in graphic and accurate detail, Thorn said. These two cases made it easier to cover sensitive topics such as child abuse.
The "perfect storm" of coverage of the Catholic Church, Thorn said, came to fruition starting in 2002, a year after the Boston Globe successfully sued to unseal Boston Archdiocese files on abuse. Using those records, the Globe published a series on sexual abuse in the archdiocese. Finally realizing the scope of the scandal, the bishops created the Office of Child and Youth Protection at a conference heavily attended by the media, Thorn said.
But the Vatican, which did not let bishops defrock priests, was reluctant to accept any reforms to fix the abuse problem, Thorn said.
Thorn closed by noting that abuse was not only a Catholic problem and was worse in many Protestant churches, but the media didn't cover this fact. "
Prof critiques coverage of (Catholic) church scandal (How the 'perfect storm' developed)
Ignorance hurts!
I suppose I make your brain sad....
susie
Do you have children? Do they attend public school? I will be more than happy to listen to your argumen if and when you can justify to me the lack of public(and your own personal) outrage aginst this .....
Sex Abuse by Teachers Said Worse Than Catholic Church
In fact, a local female school teacher has just been incarcerated for solliciting sex from her young male students. Why didn't this make national headlines.
*Why is Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was just in the Vatican to elect the new pope, still obstructing the L.A. County DA's investigation into child molestation and the church's complicity?*
What does this have to do with your post? Why single out Cardinal Mahony? Is he "your" bishop?
Pope John Paul should have been begging for forgiveness in his last hours.
And so should you for allowing the abuse in your community. "Judge not, lest you be judged".
You'll find very few FReeper Catholics with anything good to say about Roger Cardinal Mahony. Most of us will celebrate when he's gone.
Why was Cardinal Bernard Law allowed to escape to the Vatican and avoid testifying about his continual cover-ups of child molesting priests?
You're mistaken; Law did testify. In fact, I believe his deposition was posted to FR at one point.
If you ask me, the Catholic Church behaves in many ways like a cult.
This is always the bottom line, of course.
Nah, it takes way more than that to do it. Besides, I do stupid things on a daily basis. Yours doesn't even rank on a stupid scale. I could give you fifteen things I did worse in the first three hours I was awake today.
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