A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope

A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope
by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz

A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope
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Book Summary Information

Author: Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-03-04
ISBN: 0385523742
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Doubleday

Book Reviews of A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope

Book Review: Not What You Might Have Hoped For, But a Good Read Anyway
Summary: 4 Stars

If you were hoping this book would give you a very personal look about Karol Wojtyla the man, you will be very disappointed. Stanislaw Dziwisz, Wojtyla's personal secretary for 40 years, discusses only John Paul II the pope.

Furthermore, only slightly more than half of this volume is in Dziwisz's own voice. The other half is written by the "narrator" - Gian Franco Svidercoschi - in "conversation" with Dziwisz. Svidercoschi doesn't bother to introduce himself in the book, but he worked on the 2005 TV movie, "Karol: A Man Who Became Pope," and a book that came out in 2007 entitled "Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of John Paul II." Svidercoschi is billed as a "well-known Vatican observer" and comes from a Polish family.

I was privileged to meet Cardinal Dziwisz and hear him speak when he did a book-signing June 24, 2008 at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. At that time he confessed he was unhappy with the "overly familiar" and misleading title "A Life with Karol" and had preferred his own title of "Witness," which probably would have been more appropriate. But his editors, Dziwisz said, insisted their title would sell more books.

Disappointments notwithstanding, this book is worth adding to your collection. Dziwisz gives a beautiful, personal accounting of Wojtyla's last hours on earth. And he does a great job of explaining John Paul II's motivations for the unique conduct of his papacy and his responses to the criticisms he received. I found it riveting to the end.

Summary of A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope

This intimate, affectionate portrait of Pope John Paul II by his longtime secretary and confidant reveals fascinating new details about the opinions, hopes, fears, and dramatic life of this public man.

“I had accompanied him for almost forty years: twelve in Krak?w and then twenty-seven in Rome. I was always with him, always at his side. Now, in the moment of death, he’d gone on alone. . . .And now? Who is accompanying him on the other side?”
—From A Life with Karol

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz worked side by side with Pope John Paul II for almost forty years, enjoying unique access to both the public and private man. In A life with Karol, he provides a close-up glimpse into the Pope’s life and the critical events of his papacy.

Dziwisz was sitting next to the Pope during the assassination attempt in 1981. He recounts the Pope's reaction to 9/11, describing his thoughts and feelings on that day. And the Cardinal’s moving description of the Pope’s haunting memories of World War II uncovers the roots of the pontiff’s intense opposition to George W. Bush’s war on Iraq.
The two men shared moments of fun and spontaneity as well. Dziwisz writes about the times the Pope would slip out of the Vatican, wearing a Panama hat, to stroll the streets of Rome, and he describes the clandestine ski and hiking trips the pair made to escape the Vatican. His firsthand account of the Pope’s last years also reveals that John Paul II considered resigning. These stories and others lend added poignancy to Dziwisz’s extraordinary portrayal of the Pope’s courage and calmness during his final illness.

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