John Paul II found the right words at the moment of his death, as he did so often throughout his life: “Let me go to the house of the Father.” It might have been very different, according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin. At a Roman soirée last week, Martin told how, on 13 May 1981, he watched John Paul II being driven into St Peter’s Square in his jeep, from in front of the Collegio Teutonico, where he was staying.According to Xavier Rynne II, writing for First Things, the then Fr Martin noticed the Pope point at him and say something to his personal secretary, Mgr Stanislaw Dziwisz. Minutes later, the shots from would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca’s semi-automatic rang out. Martin later asked Dziwisz, “What did the Pope say that day when he poin
15 October 2015, The Tablet
Not the last word
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