As a member of the “family” of the Swiss Guard during my husband’s service in the summer residence, I stayed in Castel Gandolfo with him. Sometimes two weeks, sometimes an entire month, I spent at the lake, in the lower part of the palace intended for barracks for guardsmen serving there. And, I remember that morning of August 14, 2004, when, together with the faithful Pietro, with his secretaries and with a small group of collaborators, John Paul II was leaving the inner courtyard of the Papal palace, towards the airport, to move on to France. It was the day just before the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a time when John Paul II was exceptionally absent from the patronal celebrations in the church of Castel Gandolfo. Traditionally, on August 15 before noon, he always celebrated a solemn Mass there. That year he wanted to return to Our Lady Help of Christians in Lourdes. Alone at the end of his strength, through his presence at the Marian grotto, he wanted to pour encouragement into the hearts of all the sick and suffering, who prayed fervently with him at the Mother of God.
The summer of 2004 was his last vacation.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
Pages: 255 – 256
