Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Papal penitence a sign of sainthoods - postulator

John Paul whipped himself, fasted intensely and spent whole nights sleeping outstretched on bare floor

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II always took penitence seriously, spending entire nights lying with his arms outstretched on the bare floor, fasting before ordaining priests or bishops and flagellating himself, said the promoter of his sainthood cause.

Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator of the late pope's cause, said Pope John Paul used self-mortification "both to affirm the primacy of God and as an instrument for perfecting himself."

The priest spoke to reporters Jan. 26 at the launch of his book, Why He's a Saint: The Real John Paul II According to the Postulator of His Beatification Cause.

Earlier in the day, two Italian news websites reported that an October date had been set for Pope John Paul's beatification. Oder said nothing could be confirmed until physicians, theologians and cardinals at the Congregation for Saints' Causes accept a miracle credited to the late pope's intercession and Pope Benedict signs a decree recognizing it.

SWORN TESTIMONY

Oder's book, published only in Italian, is based largely on what he learned from the documents collected for the beatification process and, particularly, from the sworn testimony of the 114 people who personally knew Pope John Paul and testified before the tribunal investigating his fame of holiness.

Because of the reticence surrounding the process, the witnesses who served as the source for particular affirmations in the book are not named. Some, however, are described loosely as members of the papal entourage or the papal household.

"When it wasn't some infirmity that made him experience pain, he himself would inflict discomfort and mortification on his body," Oder wrote.

He said the penitential practices were common both when then-Karol Wojtyla was archbishop of Krakow, Poland, as well as after he became pope.

"Not infrequently he passed the night lying on the bare floor," the priest wrote, and people in the Krakow archbishop's residence knew it. Wojtyla would mess up the covers on his bed so it wouldn't be obvious that he hadn't slept there.

"As some members of his closest entourage were able to hear with their own ears, Karol Wojtyla flagellated himself both in Poland and in the Vatican.

"In his closet, among the cassocks, there was a hook holding a particular belt for slacks, which he used as a whip and which he also always brought to Castel Gandolfo," the papal summer residence south of Rome.

In the book, Oder said Pope John Paul firmly believed that he was doing what St. Paul professed to do in the Letter to the Colossians: "In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ."

He also said the pope, who had a notorious sweet tooth, was extremely serious about maintaining the Lenten fast and would lose several pounds before Easter each year. The pope also fasted before ordaining priests and bishops and for other special intentions.

RESIGNATION LETTERS

Oder's book also marked the publication for the first time of letters Pope John Paul prepared in 1989 and in 1994 offering the College of Cardinals his resignation in case of an incurable disease or other condition that would prevent him from fulfilling his ministry.

For years there were rumours that Pope John Paul had prepared a letter instructing cardinals to consider him resigned in case of incapacity.

But even a month before his death in April 2005, canon law experts were saying the problem with such a letter is that someone else would have to decide when to pull it out of the drawer and apply it.

The 1989 letter was brief and to the point. It says that in the case of an incurable illness or some serious impediment that prevents him from carrying out his role, he renounced his office as pope.

In his 1994 letter the pope said he had spent years wondering whether a pope should resign at age 75, the normal retirement age for bishops.

Then, he said, he decided to follow the example of Pope Paul VI who, in 1965, concluded that a pope could not resign except in the event of an incurable illness or other impediment to carrying out his ministry.

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