"If you want to know something about my life ask him: he knows better than me." So he used to joke John Paul II giving a priest among his old friends lean and lanky. He is the first major biography of Karol Wojtyla: Father Adam Boniecki, director of Tygodnik Powszechny, the Polish Catholic weekly. smiles When I remember trying to hide his emotion. Boniecki has reconstructed the events of his more famous compatriot day to day, from birth until his election as Pope on October 16, 1978. A detailed chronicle and meticulous, a real "calendar of the life of Karol Wojtyla," as the title of the book, translated into English. "I did it to dispel the many legends that began to circulate on the Polish Pope, completely fictional stories about that had been engaged, no, he was married but was widowed, had gone underground army to fight the Nazis, and so invented ...», Don Adam explains that had the approval of Pope John Paul II for the his work. Karol Wojtyla had known the first time in 1971, Catholic University of Lublin, where the then Cardinal of Krakow lectured on Ethics. "He was much loved by our students because, unlike many teachers, it was a simple person, the hand that gave absolutely no airs - it tells -. And this despite the fact that his lectures on philosophy were far from easy. " You
a portrait by no means hagiographic track what the former student. "The first thing that struck me about him was his humor. He was a guy who loved to joke, always had a joke ready and this was not common among the teachers of the time. " Dig in memory, laughs, then shakes his head wrapped in a cloud of smoke. No, this can not be written ... And why? Here is the anecdote. At a meeting of priests was one who never stopped talking and making noise. Cardinal Wojtyla amiably chided him: "If you continue to disturb you'll end up in purgatory." And the other, irreverent, "Yes, and I know what I'll do in purgatory read his texts of philosophy." Some after this priest died and when John Paul II went to bless the grave did not hold back: "Poor thing, and now in the afterlife the study will touch my book" Act and person "."
Boniecki The young priest was assigned by the archbishop of Krakow at the campus ministry. A fantastic and challenging work, carried out in close contact with Wojtyla. During Holy Week, as today in the church of Sant'Anna hundreds of students attend the retreat. "Wojtyla came and started as a simple priest in the confessional, in black cassock. And even clandestine meetings with the university he appeared in an informal way, with great freedom and spontaneity. Maybe he's right here its sanctity, "he says as if reflected to himself. Don Adam does not agree with the portraits of the Polish Pope who like Superman began to be popular in recent years after his death. "Of course - he added - was a man of great courage. But it gave no see. Once I submitted the issue of summer camps with young people (such meetings were banned by the communist regime, ed.) I had heard that the SB, the secret services, were determined to stamp out the phenomenon. What happens if we find out? asked the archbishop. And I mean the authorities will make some 'noise, then force us to pay a fine for violation of the rules on public meetings. And he, with relaxed air: okay, it means that we will pay, our work is priceless. "
One of the first decisions taken by John Paul II, newly elected Pope, was to call his father to Rome to direct Boniecki L'Osservatore Romano in Polish. Recently from the archives of the communist secret services it turned out that Don Adam, considered one of the confidants of the Pope, the Polish priest was more guarded. They tried in every way for enlisted as a collaborator, but failed. "I only needed a glance to understand the real intentions of many people mellifluous and mean that they invited me to lunch to learn the secrets of the Vatican. I ate, drank and let them dry, " says slyly. But John Paul II was aware of these attempts? "Yes, but does not care that much. He had an incredible instinct, learned in many years under the regime in Poland. And then he had nothing to hide: that he thought he said it publicly, at the risk of appearing rude and undiplomatic. Even here, indeed, it appears that his holiness, that of an extraordinary man to live a normal life and the difficulties of life. " Luigi
Geninazzi
Source: www.avvenire.it
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