CNS STORY: Dying pope taught staff valuable lessons, top aide says

The whole CNS
public Web site
headlines, briefs
stories, etc,
represents less
than one percent
of the daily news
report.

Get all the news!

If you would like
more information
about the
Catholic News
Service daily
news report,
please contact
CNS at one of
the following:
cns@
catholicnews.com
or
(202) 541-3250

Copyright:

This material
may not
be published,
broadcast,
rewritten or
otherwise
distributed.

Copyright
(c) 2005
Catholic News
Service/U.S.
Conference of
Catholic Bishops.

CNS Story:

INTERREGNUM-SANDRI Apr-13-2005 (420 words) With photos. xxxi

Dying pope taught staff valuable lessons, top aide says

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In addition to thanking God for the ministry of Pope John Paul II, Vatican officials offered thanks for the lessons they learned as he was dying, said one of his top aides.

"In the months marked by the progressive decline of his health," Pope John Paul's "simplicity and poverty" became even clearer, said Argentine Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, assistant secretary of state.

"It is up to us in a special way to safeguard and make fruitful that which this extraordinary pope gave to the church and the whole world over the course of his life and at the moment of his death," the archbishop told Vatican officials April 13 as he presided over a memorial Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Mass, part of the church's official nine-day mourning period, was open to the public, but was entrusted especially to members of the Roman Curia.

Archbishop Sandri encouraged the officials to use the time to reflect on "the precious heritage he left, especially to those of us who were closest to him" because of working at the Vatican.

"Those who were able to share the daily activity of the pope were witnesses to his profound love for the Eucharist," he said. "Before making important decisions, he usually would spend long periods of time before the Blessed Sacrament in his private chapel, bringing with him the dossiers to examine."

And, the archbishop said, those who were able to visit Pope John Paul in his apartment in the last weeks of his life "could not help but experience a sense of admiration for the modesty of the furnishings that surrounded him, as well as for the humility and simplicity, the sense of detachment and the total availability with which he abandoned himself into the hands of God."

Archbishop Sandri said "the great example and the precious teaching that the deceased pontiff left to those of us called to work in the Roman Curia" was "an example of simplicity and detachment, of faithful and disinterested service in the Lord's vineyard, of constant openness and docile adhesion to the will of God."

The archbishop ended his homily saying, "Dear and beloved Holy Father John Paul II, thank you for the example you have left us."

He prayed that the pope would continue to watch over the church and entrust the members of the curia, the church and all humanity to the maternal hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

END

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250