– During a trip to Brazil, in 1980, he instructed to re-write much of the speech to be addressed to the episcopate there, because he personally learned how much this text (prepared in the Secretariat of State) contains very negative judgments about the ecclesiastical and social situation of this great South American country.
– And, how many more times has John Paul II put aside a speech prepared in the Vatican offices!
– Often, however, it was the Pope, in a certain situation, who decided to speak directly, improvising.
– Okay, but there is a problem when the Pope does not receive all the information that could be helpful, or when he is not told about some serious facts or some lamentable facts. Also, many serious Cardinals continued to talk about the “unfortunate case” in connection with the audience that John Paul II gave to the founder of the Legionnaires of Christ, Father Maciel Degollado, who turned out to be an outrageous individual…
But, when the Holy Father met him, he knew nothing! For him, he continued to be the founder of a great religious congregation, and it is enough! No one told him anything! Even about the rumors that were circulating.
With the permission of Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz – “At the side of the Saint”
St. Stanislaw BM Publishing House, Krakow 2013
