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Pope 'wanted to resign'
02/02/2006 14:47 - (SA)
Rome - The late Pope John Paul II, plagued by ill-health in his final years, had considered resigning but dismissed the idea because it would have set a "dangerous precedent," his private secretary is quoted as saying in a new book.
According to the book by Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, a Vatican expert in ecclesiastical law, the late pontiff asked him for advice about stepping down.
Herranz, head of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, outlined the procedure to the pope's then-private secretary Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz at John Paul II's request.
He quotes Dziwisz as saying that the pope was not personally attached to the high office but was simply "obeying the will of God."
"He has given himself up to divine providence. As well as that, he fears it would create a dangerous precedent for his successors," he quotes Dziwisz as saying in his book Around Jericho - Memories of the years with Saint Josemaria and John Paul II.
Dziwisz added that the pope was concerned about the likelihood that his successors "could find themselves exposed to manoeuvres and subtle pressures from people wanting to depose them."
Herranz said Dziwisz made the comments in December 2004, five months before death of John Paul II on April 2 2005.
In his later years, rumours were rife at the Vatican and in the media about a possible papal resignation on the grounds of ill-health and advanced age, but his aides always insisted his illness had no affect on his state of mind.
The pope suffered from Parkinson's disease, an advanced form of arthritis, and bore the effects of a 1981 assassination attempt as well as several surgical operations.
- AFP
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