Full text: Pope’s last will and testament

ENTRY OF MARCH 5, 1982
Totus Tuus ego sum
5.III.1982 (Eds: March 5, 1982)
In the course of the spiritual exercises this year I have read (several times) the text of the testament of 6.III.1979. (Eds: March 6, 1979). Notwithstanding that even now it is to be considered as provisional (not definitive), I leave it in its presently existing form. I change (for now) nothing, nor do I add anything, as regards the arrangements contained within it.
The attempt on my life of 13.V.1981 (Eds: May 13, 1981) has in some way confirmed the exactness of the words written in the period of the spiritual exercises of 1980 (24.II - 1.III) (Eds: Feb. 24-March 1).
All the more profoundly I feel myself totally in the Hands of God — and I remain continually at the disposition of my Lord, entrusting myself to Him and to His Immaculate Mother (Totus Tuus).
John Paul pp. II

5.III.1982 (Eds: March 5, 1982)
In connection with the final phrase of my testament of 6.III.1979 (Eds: March 6, 1979) (“About the place/the place, that is, of the funeral/may the College of Cardinals and Compatriots”) — I clarify what I had in mind: the metropolitan of Krakow or the General Council of the Bishops of Poland — I ask in the meantime the College of Cardinals to satisfy to the extent possible the eventual questions of the aforementioned.

1.III.1985 (Eds: March 1, 1985) (during spiritual exercises).
Again — concerning the expression “College of Cardinals and the Compatriots”: the “College of Cardinals” has no obligation to consult “the Compatriots” on this question; it can, in any case, do so, if for some reason it considers it right to do so.
JPII

2000 addition
The spiritual exercises of the Jubilee year 2000
(12-18.III) (Eds: March 12-18)
(VATICAN’S NOTATION: “for the will”)
1. When, on the day of Oct. 16, 1978, the conclave of cardinals chose John Paul II, the Primate of Poland Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski told me: “The task of the new pope will be to introduce the Church into the Third Millennium.” I do not know if I am repeating the phrase exactly, but at least such was the sense of what I heard then. It was said by the Man who has passed into history as the Primate of the Millennium. A great Primate. I was witness to the mission, to His total entrusting of himself. To His struggles; to His victory. “Victory, when it will come, will be a victory through Maria” — these, the words of his Predecessor, Cardinal August Hlond, the Primate of the Millennium was wont to repeat.
In this way I was to some degree prepared for the task which was placed before me on Oct. 16, 1978. As I write these words, the Jubilee Year of 2000 is already a reality, and under way. The night of Dec. 24, 1999, the symbolic Door of the Great Jubilee of the Basilica of St. Peter was opened, and successively that of St. John Lateran, then St. Mary Major’s on New Year’s Eve; and on Jan. 19, the Door of the Basilica of St. Paul “Outside the Walls.” This latter event, given its ecumenical character, has remained particularly engraved in memory.
2. To the degree that the Jubilee Year 2000 goes forward, closing behind us day by day is the 20th century, while the 21st century opens. In accordance with the designs of Providence, it was granted to me to live during the difficult century that is passing, and now, in the year during which my age reaches 80 years (“octogesima adveniens”), it is necessary to ask if it is not the time to repeat the words of the Biblical Simeon, “Nunc dimittis.” (Eds: ‘Now Master you may let your servant go.”)
On May 13, 1981, the day of the attempt upon the life of the Pope during the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Divine Providence saved me from death in a miraculous way. He who is the sole Savior of life and of death, Himself prolonged this life, and in a certain way gave it to me anew. From this moment it belongs to Him all the more. I hope that He will help me to recognize the time until when I must continue this service, to which he called me on the day of Oct. 16, 1978. I ask (Him) to call me when He wants. “In life and in death we belong to the Lord ... we are of the Lord” (cf Romans 14, 8). I hope too that throughout the time given me to carry out the service of Peter in the Church, the Mercy of God will lend me the necessary strength for this service.
3. As I do every year during spiritual exercises I read my testament from 6-III-1979 (Eds: March 6, 1979). I continue to maintain the dispositions contained in this text. What then, and even during successive spiritual exercises, has been added constitutes a reflection of the difficult and tense general situation which marked the ’80s. From autumn of the year 1989 this situation changed. The last decade of the century was free of the previous tensions; that does not mean that it did not bring with it new problems and difficulties. In a special way may Divine Providence be praised for this, that the period of the so-called “cold war” ended without violent nuclear conflict, the danger of which weighed on the world in the preceding period.

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