John Paul II's Poem Foreshadowing the Conclave

Official translation of the text of John Paul II's poem foreshadowing the conclave, which he wrote in Polish in 2002 as part of a volume of poetic meditations published by the Vatican the following year.

Judgment

In the Sistine the artist painted the Judgment,
The Judgment dominates the whole interior.
Here, the invisible End becomes poignant visibility.
This End is also the summit of transparency
such is the path of all generations.

"Non omnis moriar" (Not all of me will die).
What is imperishable in me
now stands face to face with Him Who Is!
This is what fills the central wall of the Sistine profusion of color.

Do you remember, Adam? At the beginning he asked you where are you?
And you replied: I hid myself from You because I was naked.
Who told you that you were naked?
The woman whom you put here with me gave me the fruit....

All those who populate the central wall of the Sistine painting
bear in themselves the heritage of that reply of yours!
Of that question and that response!
Such is the End of your path.

Epilogue

It is here, at the feet of this marvellous Sistine profusion of colour
that the Cardinals gather
a community responsible for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.
They come right here.
And once more Michelangelo wraps them in his vision.
In Him we live and move and have our being.

Who is He?

Look, here the creating hand of the Almighty Ancient One,
turned towards Adam....
In the beginning God created....
He, the all-seeing One....

The Sistine painting will then speak with the Word of the Lord:
Tu est Petrus (You are Peter) as Simon, the son of Jonah, heard.
To you I will give the keys of the Kingdom.
Those to whom the care of the legacy of the keys has been entrusted
gather here, allowing themselves to be enfolded by the Sistine s colours,
by the vision left to us by Michelangelo
so it was in August, and then in October,
of the memorable year of the two Conclaves,
and so it will be again, when the need arises after my death.
Michelangelo's vision must then speak to them.
Conclave: a joint concern for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.

They will find themselves between the Beginning and the End,
between the Day of Creation and the Day of Judgment.
It is given to man once to die and after that the judgment!

A final transparency and light.
The clarity of the events
the clarity of consciences
It is necessary that during the Conclave, Michelangelo teach them
Do not forget: "Omnia nuda et aperta sunt ante oculos Eius."
You who are in all, show the way!
He will teach you....

From an Inside the Vatican NewsFlash