Text of Pope's Last Will and Testament

Associated Press ^ | April 7, 2005 | Associated Press

[BigSkyFreeper]

The following is an English translation of the official Vatican Italian translation of the text of Pope John Paul II's last will and testament, which was originally written in Polish with successive additions. Dates have been written according to European convention, which makes "6.3.1979" represent March 6, 1979.

The document begins with a Latin phrase that reads, "I am completely in Your hands," and follows with a citation from the New Testament.

The testament of 6.3.1979

Totus Tuus ego sum

In the Name of the Holiest Trinity. Amen.

"Keep watch, because you do not know which day when the Lord will come" - 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. To 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.

[Pyro7480]

Aren’t We Saved by Faith Alone?

[jamesissmall218]

So now Roman Catholics aren't Christians! I really am in awe that you hold the knowledge of who is a Christian, who is not, who will be saved, and who won't. I was always under the impression that only God knew this, but what do I know, I'm just a Mary-worshipping blasphemer.

[onyx]

Quite right.
You have every right to make up your own saints.
And your own religion.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I am also watching Vatican TV via the internet...and wishing I understood Italian...

[jamesissmall218]

Thank you.

[rose]

Do you honestly think Jesus, who is sinless could lie in a womb for 9 months that was sinful, to come forth from a sinful woman, geez, common sense would tell you different, but your eyes and ears are closed. Mary was saved by Jesus before she was born, at her conception. Read the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-56. These are Mary's words, she states of her soul magnifying the Lord, her spirit rejoicing in God my Savior......all generations shall call me blessed.
You sola scripture alone folks, skip over this. Mary was the one at the wedding who ask Jesus to perform the miracle of water to wine. His first miracle, she asked Him to do so. She always points to Jesus, and she is blessed, your scriptures says such, and mine too.
And, your little minds are insignificant, as mine too, do not limit God, He can do anything, and He saved Mary at conception, she had to be sinless for Christ, she is and was the Holy Tabernacle. God created Adam and Eve, whom were sinless, can he not do the same for Mary, the new Eve, Christ was referred to as the new Adam.
I really feel sorry for you, and by the way, I am a converted Catholic since 1986.
When I started studying scripture again, was totally amazed at all that is Catholic in scripture, and when we studied all as a protestant, all these scriptures are skipped over and not talked about.
The Catholic Church is the complete Church, full of sinful people just as all churches have sinful people, I referred this at my confirmation, all other churches are good, and are a piece of the pie, the Catholic Church is the whole pie. We do not worship Mary but we sure do honor her, and ask her for help, do you not do the same for your mother?
Do you not think how much pain you bring to Jesus by being so mean and indifferent with His mother, whom he was born from, raised from and loved.

[Petronski]

I often wondered why some of the most vitriolic, calumnious critics of the Catholic Church are departed members who have left the Church.


Then I realized, they do not know what they have left and lost, and probably never understood it at all. From that starting point, doctrinal misstatements and vicious attacks are a completely understandable result.

[Pyro7480]

It wasn't from the Bible, and I know you're going to be "shocked." ;-) The Scripture is the beginning of Truth ("But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written," John 21: 25.), not the end.

[onyx]

Ditto.
I understand a little.
Not enough.

[don-o]

But can't you envision Jesus' dead body in the arms of his sorrowful mother? And if the dying Karol Wojtyla feels such a tender need of Mary, isn't that because he wants to be like Christ in death, as in life?

Don't we all pray to "die with Christ"?

Mrs. Don-o

[CompSciGuy]

With all due respect,

Perhaps you should go to the Vatican sometime. They've had incorruptibles on display like JPII in the picture for centuries before the Soviet Union was even a deranged thought in Lenin's mind. This is something the Church has done for centuries, its not a bad thing in the slightest. That our modern minds associate it with people who've ripped off this form of veneration, is to me a very disturbing thing.

Cheers,

CSG

[Lady Heron]

Is Mary not the mother of Christ. Is Christ not our master? You know, maybe 18 years of Catholicism really has blinded me to the truth, but I really thought that it was common agreement that Mary is the mother of Christ. /sarcasm off

You do not need sarcasm, I agree with you that Mary is the mother of Christ and Christ is my Lord, but that does not make Mary my Lord. Where we disagree is the point of this mystical power she has come about in the Catholic Church, but none can find for her in any Protestant Churches.

We love her and respect her, but do not find anywhere in the Bible it says she has some power in heaven or that we are to pray to her or give things over to her. Sorry just do not get it.

[conservonator]

NO WHERE IN THE SCRIPTURES DOES IT TEACH THAT MARY IS THE INTERCESSOR

Wrong, read you Bible, specificaly John 2:1-10.

[wolfman]

The apostle Paul never told the young Christians in his churches to unite in harmony with the Judaizers—even though the Judaizers also believed in the one true God, the deity of Christ, the inspiration of the Scriptures, and going to church. Why such a harsh stance? Because, in spite of believing all these good things, the Judaizers taught a different gospel and therefore were not "in Christ."

[CompSciGuy]

Some of us have taken oaths to protect the church, the priesthood and the religious, so it is not that easy for them to walk away.

Cheers,

CSG (3rd Degree KoC)

[Knitting A Conundrum]

O Blessed Mother,
Impossible for me to imagine, really,
all those years with him who was love incarnate,
growing up straight and tall ,
a graceful sapling
turnng into a man.

I can imagine him
playing games through the streets of Nazareth,
sitting at Joseph's feet among the wood shavings,
watching you sewing.

Yet, to be with him all that time -
Did not the villagers notice
something special
about the youth
growing in their midst?

And you -
impossible to imagine
a lifetime spent
tending and caring,
loving and fixing for
God on earth -
Amazing that the glory invisible in your home
did not shatter your walls -
Indelible the brightness
it left upon your soul!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

We are all called to do this...just some are called to do it in different styles...

[tiredoflaundry]

FYI...This was on the EWTN site. It's titled Praying to Mary and the Saints.
http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/maryc4.htm

[jamesissmall218]

I'm sorry, but you simply do not understand Catholicism. WE DO NOT BELIEVE THAT MARY IS A GOD. WE DO NOT WORSHIP HER. I don't know how to make it more clear. Asking one to pray for you is not worship. Jesus did the same thing to Moses.

[Petronski]

...since Pius XII there was only two short periods (one of them six months and the other33 days) when there was a Pope on Earth to beatify martyrs...

Can you explain this?