The dimension that was closely related to the spiritual one was his inner freedom. Precisely, because of his way of experiencing faith, – as it was rooted in the full, total faith – he was a man of deep freedom, internally free. He was a man detached from material goods, but also from himself. He knew how to listen, but also how to take criticism. He apologized, if he felt it was just.
We need to say that he lived very modestly, he was content with what he had, he never asked for anything. The same was with his experiences. I think that sometimes, he did not even know what he was eating. Almost always, he had people at the table, joining him for lunch or dinner and for him these people were more important than food. He was asking them about emerging issues, a critical situation or about events in the world and at the same time, he was answering their questions. It was a conversation in the true sense of this word.
Then, he was not a man who did care about convenience nor he was paying attention to devices that were at home in which he lived. Looking from the outside on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace, his house could appear as a royal palace. While, in fact there was one room divided into two parts: in one part there was a work desk, in the second part, there was bedroom. He did not change anything in the conditions of the room in which Paul VI and Pope Luciani lived. He had also over here (I know about it as I was bringing from Krakow only a few items he asked for) a photography of his parents and brother Edmund and a small image of the suffering Christ.
Certainly, as the Pope, he was rich, but he never had any personal money. He never received any salary. And, it was the Secretariat of the State that was taking care of his apartment and was caring for the costs associated with his apostolic activities. Telling the truth, Karol Wojtyła was never an expert in dealing with money.
At the permission of Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz – “At the side of the Saint”
St. Stanislaus BM Publisher, Kraków 2013
