The Pope came to the terrace almost until his last days. He needed it. And, I watched with the naked eye the physical transformation that took place in him. First, he started walking with a cane and that was always moving me a lot – how great his fortitude was, how hard he tried to break his physical abilities. At the end, one of the secretaries – Father Dziwisz or Father Mietek – brought him upstairs in a wheelchair and placed him next to Our Lady of Fatima. Then, he would come to me and ask me to look at the Holy Father from time to time to see if he was okay, and if anything was going on, to let them know downstairs, in the office. And, so it was. It was a huge responsibility for me. I was working, and the Pope sat quietly, praying at the statue of Mary and looking at St. Peter’s Square below, at the entire Rome and at the mountains on the horizon.
Of course, in this difficult last period, he no longer walked alone. Fridays were especially important to him. At that time he celebrated the Stations of the Cross on the roof, on Fridays it was an indispensable point of the program for him. It was he himself who years ago, right at the beginning of his pontificate, wanted the Stations of the Cross to be installed on the terrace. He always prayed over there, in any weather, regardless of the conditions, he remained immersed in prayer. I felt embarrassed, because sometimes I would die from the cold, and he tirelessly passed through all the stations. It struck me a lot and gave me a lot to think about.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
Pages: 150 – 151
