“Let Me Go”

Recently, a book entitled “Let Me Go” was co-authored by Dr. Buzzonetti, personal physician of the late Pope John Paul II, the recently elevated Stanislaw Cardinal Dziwisz, John Paul’s personal secretary, and several of the late Pope’s confidantes. The book described the great Pope’s resolute will for life.

Dr. Buzzonetti wrote, “The Pope maintained a very subjective view on whether his various ailments should be treated. If he felt that a certain condition didn’t need to be treated, he simply didn’t tell the doctor about it. When the Pope was admitted into hospital for the second time in March 2005 for a small operation to insert a breathing tube to assist with his breathing, he quipped, ‘Can this wait until the summer?’”

On the morning three days before his death, while he was attending mass, the Pope was suddenly stricken with a high fever. However, he insisted on remaining in his residence and refused to go to the hospital. He remained conscious and serene until the next day. When he attended mass at 6:30 am, he slipped into unconsciousness at 7:30am until that evening, at 9:37pm, when he left this world and returned to God’s home. That afternoon, Stanislaw Dziwisz heard the Pope say in very clear Polish, “Let me go!”

May we learn from Pope John Paul II’s example, so that we have the same spirit of persistence in fulfilling our duties and the same resoluteness and will when faced with life’s challenges, and look forward to God’s kingdom our eternal home.