Rome, Italy, Sep 18, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Let me go to the house of the Father.” These were Pope John Paul II’s last words, mumbled in polish with a weak voice, six hours before reaching the house of the father.
The Vatican already revealed many of the details in a meticulously written report, but the 220-page volume provides more description of John Paul II's decline. It went on sale at the Vatican in recent days, the Holy See's publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, said Saturday.
The book, published as a supplement to the Vatican's official journal, has entries in chronological order, starting with Jan. 31, the day the Vatican's press office announced that the pope's audiences were being suspended because he had flu symptoms. It chronicles John Paul II's symptoms, care and response to treatment during two hospitalizations and then during his last days in his Vatican City apartment.
Six hours before his death, John Paul said in Polish, "with a very weak voice and with mumbled words, 'Let me go to the house of the Father,"' the report said.