The last trip in which Commander Christoph Graf accompanied John Paul II was a pilgrimage to Lourdes in 2004, shortly before his death. The Pope left there an extremely deep and very symbolic message.
– He, a very sick pope, already very advanced in years, came to Lourdes to the sick to go with them to the Mother of God. It touched me tremendously and made me think.
We have seen how much he suffers every day, and in ourselves it caused suffering. We talked about it with each other among the guards. We felt powerless. Especially at the end, when the Pope was no longer able to speak clearly, when it was difficult to understand him, when he could not travel long distances and go to the people, which was previously a special sign of his pontificate. To go out to another human being. Cross countries and continents. This impotence hurt him enormously. We, the members of his personal protection, being so close to him every day and participating in all points of his program, shared this pain with him. I am thinking here of the last two, even three years of his life. It was still an intense time of ministry for him, but the cross he carried was crushing him more and more. And, we all saw that he heroically carried it to the end.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
pages: 120 – 121
