Word: polishers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Today a fervent Polish fealty -- part feudal, fiercely loyal -- attends John Paul in the Vatican. The five black-robed nuns who cook his meals and do his laundry are members of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is based in Cracow. More important, one of the Pope's two secretaries -- and the one who controls all access to his boss -- is Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz, 55, also of Cracow. (The other secretary is not Italian, as one might expect, but ( Vietnamese, Monsignor Vincent Tran Ngoc...
Every morning, before his private and general audiences, John Paul devotes an hour or so to writing or -- increasingly, as age and injuries have taken their toll -- to dictation. When he can, he composes quickly, in Polish, with a neat, flowing hand, using a black felt-tipped pen. On the top left of every page he prints the letters AMDG (initials for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam -- To the Greater Glory of God). On the top right of the first page he inscribes Tuus Totus (All Thine), the opening words of a short prayer to the Virgin whose text he continues...
...Pope, meals are occasions to bounce ideas off friends from Poland, bureaucrats and theologians who want to discuss policy and liturgy, young seminarians, ordinary people who are invited for his 7 a.m. Mass and breakfast. There is a kind of hierarchy of meals. Says Marek Skwarnicki, a Polish journalist and papal friend: "Lunch is for bishops, dinner is for friends...
...companions are Vatican aides, Sister Tobiana, one of the Pope's Polish nuns-in-waiting, will serve family-style. With guests from outside the city-state, Angelo Gugel, the chief papal valet, dons a waiter's jacket for formal service. The menu is Italian: pasta or antipasto, followed by a meat dish with vegetables and salad, and either fruit with cheese or a Polish pastry for dessert. Asked if the papal cuisine was any good, a French Cardinal once responded: "Coming from Lyons, that's hard for me to say -- but there are a sufficient number of calories...
...year, he dines with Jerzy Kluger, a Jewish classmate from Wadowice who is a businessman in Rome. Swapping stories and memories, Kluger calls the Pope by his youthful nickname, Lolek. John Paul likes to spend his vacations hiking with the Rev. Father Tadeusz Styczen (pronounced Stee-chen), the Polish philosopher who succeeded to Wojtyla's chair at the University of Lublin and plays a key role in the shaping of his encyclicals. Styczen, 62, continues to be fascinated with John Paul. "He still remains a mystery to me. He begins to pray and five minutes later forgets anyone is around...