Pope John Paul II considered stepping down from his papacy owing to his deteriorating health, says Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the former Pope’s personal secretary, in his new book to be released on January 29. Sources have confirmed that the book, A Life with Karol , will be released next week, initially in Polish and Italian. Cardinal Dziwisz, Polish like the Pope was, reveals in the book that Pope John Paul II or Karol Wojtyla (his real name), believed that popes should resign at the age of 80. He called for a meeting of his closest colleagues to discuss the resignation in 2000.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and the present Pope and Cardinal Dziwisz were also present at the meeting. Pope John Paul II discussed his increasing frailty and deteriorating health with his colleagues and is believed to have asked whether he should step down because he was afflicted by Parkinson’s disease.
He is said to have wondered aloud whether the Pope should step down at 80, the age at which Cardinals are no longer eligible to elect a new Pope. At the end of the meeting, John Paul II chose faith to reason and “decided to submit to God’s will, to remain as long as God wanted”.
In 2002, Pope John Paul II had a real problem at hand when the Vatican’s two most powerful cardinals were nearing retirement age – Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the then Vatican Secretary of State.