Rome, Italy, Jan 27, 2017 / 03:04 am
When St. John Paul II was shot in St. Peter Square May 13, 1981, his car rushed into the Vatican and had to turn around the back of St. Peter's Basilica to get to the Apostolic Palace. There, his personal doctor Renato Buzzonetti was waiting for him. Only after Buzzonetti made the first examination was St. John Paul II sent to Gemelli Hospital for the surgery that would save his life.
It was Buzzonetti himself who recounted this story, years after, in an interview with the newspaper Il Messagero.
Buzzonetti died Jan. 21 at the age of 92.
He was the personal doctor of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but he also served John Paul I during his short pontificate. He was the doctor who was at Bl. Paul VI's side when he died in August 1978.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz came from Krakow to celebrate Buzzonetti's funeral Jan. 23, despite his busy schedule preparing the Jan. 28 installation Mass of his successor in Krakow, Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski.
Cardinal Dziwisz showed due respect to the man who, like himself, worked under the entire pontificate of St. John Paul II.