WARSAW, Poland — One of the cardinal rules in the Catholic church: obedience to the pope. So it has come as a shock for many in the Catholic world that John Paul II’s most trusted confidant has betrayed the beloved pontiff’s last will and testament by publishing personal notes he wanted burned.
Stanislaw Dziwisz, now a cardinal, said that he “did not have the courage” to destroy the notes and is having them published as a precious insight into the inner life of the beloved pontiff, who will be declared a saint in April.
The book — “Very Much in God’s Hands. Personal Notes 1962-2003” — comes out this week in Poland. An English version is being considered.
“I’m not sure that Cardinal Dziwisz knows what he is doing,” Ewelina Gniewnik said in Warsaw.
The book may be more surprising for what it does not contain: reference to world events and the collapse of communism in John Paul’s native Poland, which the pope played a critical role in bringing about.
