Unfortunately, pharmaceutical treatment was not enough. It was not enough anymore. Dr. Buzzonetti, along with other doctors, decided that he needed to perform an immediate tracheotomy procedure to provide the Pope with sufficient air supply and thus avoid the risk of suffocation. They told him about it, and he turned to me and whispered into my ear if I could ask the doctors to postpone the procedure for the summer break. But after a while, seeing the reaction of those present, he immediately agreed to the operation. And, once again he gave us all a little bit of his sense of humor. Dr. Buzzonetti tried to comfort him by saying: “Your Holiness, it is such a simple procedure.” And, he said, “Simple, for whom?” Of course, it was mentioned that for some time he will not be able to speak. But then, just after waking up from anesthesia, he found out specifically what the restriction meant. He moved his hand. I realized he wanted to write something. I gave him a piece of paper and a pen, and he with his trembling hand wrote a few words: “What have you done to me! But,… Totus Tuus.” He wanted to express his pain to them because of his lost voice, and at the same time his willingness to entrust himself completely to Mary. And, so for the first time since the beginning of the pontificate, John Paul II, after returning to the Vatican, could not preside over the celebrations of the Paschal Triduum. Nevertheless, on Good Friday he wanted to participate in the Stations of the Cross from the Colosseum by watching it on a TV placed in his private chapel. At the fourteenth Station he took the cross in his hands, as if he wanted to draw his face closer to the face of Christ, combining his sufferings with the suffering of the Son of God, who died on the cross.
With the consent of Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz – “Testimony”.
TBA marketing communication Publishing House. Warsaw 2007
