02/04/2008

John Paul Aide Says Pope Still With Him

ROME (AP) � The longtime private secretary of Pope John Paul II said Tuesday that he still turns to the late pontiff whenever he has a problem.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was the closest aide to John Paul for nearly 40 years, grew emotional during an event in Rome on the eve of the third anniversary of the pontiff's death.

"I can't forget his last goodbye, when he took my hand and I kissed his for the last time," Dziwisz said. "This goodbye will stay with me forever."

John Paul died on April 2, 2005, after a nearly 27-year pontificate. Shortly afterward, Pope Benedict XVI put him on the fast track for possible sainthood, waiving a customary five-year waiting period.

Benedict will hold a Mass on Wednesday marking his death.

Dziwisz said John Paul and Benedict were "true friends" and recalled anecdotes from his decades with John Paul, describing, for example, how the pontiff used to bless the city of Rome before going to sleep.

"I've accompanied him for almost 40 years, now he is accompanying me � and whenever I have a problem I turn to him," said Dziwisz, now the archbishop of Krakow, Poland � a position that John Paul held himself before being elected pope.

Dziwisz said he receives letters from couples asking for John Paul's intercession in order to have children or from cancer patients hoping to be cured. Some say that after praying to him they got better, Dziwisz said.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the church official spearheading the cause to make John Paul a saint, shared his own memory of John Paul's death: "I remember thinking that a saint had died."

Oder said that places of prayers in memory of John Paul have sprung up across the world � including in Iraq, Russia and Morocco � in a sign of how universal John Paul's message was.

John Paul "was able to enter our homes like one of us," he said in the ceremony at the Rome basilica Santa Maria in Trastevere. The event was organized by the Sant'Egidio Community, a Rome-based lay Catholic organization. He "had the ability to read people's hearts."

Oder said earlier this week that he had finished a report analyzing documentation to support the canonization process.

The report summarizes and analyzes all the documentation about John Paul's life and virtues that had been gathered since his death, including testimony from witnesses and the late pontiff's own writings.

"We need to be patient and optimistic," said Oder.

The Vatican's complicated saint-making procedures � which can include the weighing of favorable and unfavorable information � require that a miracle attributed to the candidate's intercession be confirmed before beatification. A second miracle is necessary for canonization.

Daniela Petroff