For the meetings with the Holy Father very often sick people came. They came for support, for a prayer, finally for a miracle. They believed that the word, the gaze, the touch of John Paul II would relieve them of their suffering. They asked for an audience, for a holy Mass, and they also asked for a special blessing. They also asked for a possibility to receive the Holy Communion at the hands of the Holy Father during such a solemn Mass. The Holy Father never said no. The sick felt that they have a support from him. Therefore, crowds flocked to every general audience. There were really a lot of people. They approached him in wheelchairs, and when they could not or there was an obstacle, someone blocked the passage, the Holy Father always saw it and approached that person and blessed him or her. These were touching encounters. He himself no longer had at full strength. In recent years, when he could no longer walk for a long time, he was driving by the sick, stopped, stopped, rubbed their heads, and made the sign of the cross. He established the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers, established the World Day of the Sick celebrated in February. He was giving them strength as he always remembered them, and with his weakness testified the sense of suffering, in union with Christ.
Archbishop Mokrzycki “He liked Tuesdays the most”
M Publisher, Kraków 2008
