Friday, February 22, 2013

Dziwisz: “Wojtyla stayed to the end because one doesn’t come down from the cross”

Stanislaw DziwiszStanislaw Dziwisz, Cardinal of Cracow and John Paul II’s secretary until his death in April 2005, said Pope Wojtyla decided not to step down from the Throne of Peter even as he neared the end of his life because “he was convinced that one doesn’t come down from the cross.”

Apparently John Paul II even consulted the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was a close collaborator of his, about his decision to continue as leader of the Catholic Church despite his illness.