John Paul's Last Request
Pope John Paul II's longtime private secretary has revealed that he did not burn the late pontiff's notes as his will demanded, arguing that the papers contained "great riches" that should be preserved.
Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who worked with the pope from 1966 until his death this year, told Polish state radio on Saturday that there were"quite a lot of manuscripts on various issues", but offered no details.
"Nothing has been burned," he said. "Nothing is fit for burning, everything should be preserved and kept for history, for future generations, every single sentence."
He added: "These are great riches that should gradually be made available to the public," but did not say when or how that might happen.
In a March 1979 entry to his testament, John Paul said that he left no material property and asked that Archbishop Dziwisz burn all his personal notes. In the radio interview, the archbishop suggested that some of the notes could prove useful in the late pontiff's beatification process.