John Paul II also wrote it in his will. He wrote that the Council was a “great patrimony” of his pontificate. He wrote about its timeliness and importance, with conviction stressing that new generations would for a long time draw from its wealth.
Here too, above all, there remains a legacy that needs to be taken up and developed. Karol Wojtyła participated in the Council as Bishop, and then as Pope he lived it in its teaching, in its pastoral mission, through travel and by intensifying the Church’s commitment – as a protagonist in an increasingly universal dimension – to the defense of human rights, in particular religious freedom, to dialogue both ecumenical with other Christian Churches and in interreligious dialogue, especially with Judaism and Islam. Also, by engaging in the fight for justice, peace, the promotion of a new international order. (…) The church’s project, which John Paul II began not only to draw, but also to live it specifically in his ministry, is linked to the implementation of the Council, with future reform.
With the permission of Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz – “At the side of the Saint”
St. Stanislaw BM Publishing House, Krakow 2013
