The “evacuation” from the Vatican itself was quite a challenge. Early in the morning, at a certain time, I drove up to the Courtyard of Sixtus V. Immediately after the Holy Mass celebrated in a private chapel and after breakfast, the Pope took the elevator directly to the car door and got inside. And, off we went. Sometimes, when we were passing through the Courtyard of St. Damascus, the Holy Father bent down almost under the seat, so that the guards would not notice him and raise the rabble that the Pope was going somewhere without notice. Often, especially in the first years – before the news spread that we were leaving the Vatican for one-day trips – Father Józef Kowalczyk, the future nuncio, sitting with us in the car, unfolded the newspaper “L’Osservatore Romano”, which was of considerable size, and covered the Pope sitting behind him. It was similar when we set off from the summer residence of the popes in Castel Gandolfo. There I drove my car to the building in the gardens, to the so-called Villa Cibo, the Pope got into my car, we left through the side gate – and, later it was easy. Before the expedition, we changed license plates: we took off those with Vatican numbers, and screwed them with Italian numbers so as not to arouse any suspicion.
In the same car, apart from me and the Holy Father, there was also Don Stanislao and often a guest of the Pope, sometimes Father Bogusław Steczek, and sometimes a priest (later Bishop and Cardinal) Stanisław Ryłko. He was responsible in the Vatican for youth issues, especially when John Paul II’s initiative with World Youth Day was launched; the Pope was very interested in it, he wanted to be always up to date, so they had a lot of common topics.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
pages: 156 – 157
