– At the turn of the eighties and nineties, John Paul II had two main drivers. This was the need, because he moved a lot, often went outside the Vatican, repeatedly visited parishes not only in the Diocese of Rome, but also in various other parts of Italy, not to mention foreign trips. Due to the fact that the Pope was so insanely energetic and everywhere was full of him, both were heavily “exploited”. One day, Archbishop Monduzzi called the head of Autoparco and said that from now on I should be the Pope’s third reserve driver.
Shortly afterwards, I began to drive John Paul II from the Apostolic Palace to the helipad located in the Vatican Gardens or in Fiumicino Airport, from where he set off on foreign trips. Most often, the other two drivers were already in another country and there they were waiting for the Holy Father in readiness with a papamobile and with a second limousine delivered earlier to a given place by a special military cargo plane or ship.
It happened, however, that unexpectedly we went together on further routes.
On May 1, 1988, the commemoration of Saint Joseph the Worker, the day began innocently. The Pope was to go to the province of Viterbo, to Civita Castellana and the surrounding towns to symbolically visit the people working there on the day of their patron. In the morning, as usual, I drove him from the Apostolic Palace to the helipad. However, it soon turned out that due to dense fog, the helicopter could not take off. The faithful were already waiting, so immediately the decision was made that we were going by car. I was to take the Pope directly to the place. It was about sixty kilometers.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
pages: 235- 236
