Two inside views of late pope's life don't make for redundant reading

Published: 2007-03-16

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As Pope John Paul II's sainthood cause rolled forward, two people close to him have offered quite different insider accounts of his life and times. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, the late pope's personal secretary for 39 years, has produced a conversational memoir called "A Life with Karol." In anecdotal fashion, it sketches many of their major and minor experiences together. Pope Benedict XVI has meanwhile released "John Paul II: My Beloved Predecessor," a more analytical look at the philosophical and theological impact of his pontificate. Although the books focus on the same subject, they don't make for redundant reading. That says something about the breadth of Pope John Paul's 26-year pontificate. The volumes arrived in European bookstores just as church officials announced that the diocesan phase of Pope John Paul's sainthood cause would end April 2, the second anniversary of his death. The cause now goes to the Vatican. Vatican sources cautioned that it could still be a long time before Pope John Paul is declared a saint.

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