Lino Zani - The Secret Life of John Paul II

The Secret Life of

J ohn P aul II

Lino Zani

With

Marilu Simoneschi

Translated by

Matthew Sherry

Saint Benedictpress

Charlotte, North Carolina

English Translation by Matthew Sherry.

Copyright 2012 Saint Benedict Press, LLC.

Originally published as Era Santo Era Uomo .

Copyright 2011

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A ., Milano .

All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used inarticles and critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced,transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever, printed or electronic, withoutthe prior written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Chris Pelicano .

Cover photos used with permission. Courtesy of L'Osservatore Romano (PhotoVat.com).

Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with theLibrary of Congress.

ISBN: 978-1-61890-404-1

Published in the United States by Saint Benedict Press, LLC P.O.Box 410487 Charlotte, NC 28241 www.saintbenedictpress.com

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

THAT Pope John Paul IIloved the mountains and fully identified with the peace of that world is wellknown. What is not so well known is that there is an eyewitness to hisexceptional relationship with that part of creation. His name is Lino Zani , at first the pontiff sskiing instructor and alpine guide, and then, little by little over the years,a friend whom John Paul spiritually accompanied on attempts at the summits.

Thepope's love of the mountains was present throughout his life, in its active andcontemplative phases. It was a solitary love, an intense lovebut one alwaysimbued with all the personality and holiness of the man who, with his witnessof faith, shook the conscience of the world.

Here Zani shares with us never before published stories of JohnPaul II: Stories of days and nights, of human emotions and exchanges, on which Zani observed silence for years, but that now, on the vergeof the imminent beatification of John Paul II, he intends to unravel. Here hebeautifully shares with the whole world the privilege of his friendship with apope who was acclaimed, from the very day of his death, to be Santo Subito ! ( one who should be canonizedimmediately).

Andthen there is a "secret" of the pope. Somethingthat no one has ever unveiled. The story that you are about to readrecounts the mystical experiences through which John Paul developed in acomplete and clear mannerthe awareness of finding himself at the center of a"prodigious" event. Him, in avision presented by the Virgin to the shepherds of Fatima, him in the midst of theunfolding of events that would play out over an entire century.

Finally,there is the dramatic impact of certain events and the apparent"coincidence" that would take him to the snowy slopes of Mount Adamello . Before him, a "little paradise"overlapped withand in sharp contrast tothe images of an "infernal"tableau: That of the First World War, a past of death and hatred, a hatred thatwould return many years later to make an attempt on his life.

It isin this spot on the Adamello where John Paul'sdestiny, the meaning of his suffering, and his extraordinary life become evermore comprehensible, clear, almost luminous in spiteof their tragic appearance. At that precise moment, in his eyes everythingbecame acceptable, necessary, attributable to the willof God.

ANDwe saw in an immense light that is God: "something similar to how peopleappear in a mirror when they pass in front of it" a Bishop dressed inWhite "we had the impression that it was the Holy Father". OtherBishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the topof which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with thebark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half inruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, heprayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the topof the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by agroup of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same waythere died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and womenReligious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath thetwo arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersoriumin his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with itsprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.

Tuy (Spain), January 3, 1944

The third secret of Fatima

Extract of the text of the message made public by theChurch in 2000

Untila short time ago, I didn't know that fate had decided to bind my life to theprofound meaning of these words made public by the Church such a long timeafter their original revelation. In my life, I had believed that I was playinga sort of game, in which things fell into place thanks to my efforts, to mywork and my tenacity. I had satisfied most of my desires. Now I know that's notthe way it is. Now I know that the days, hours, and minutes of my entireexistence have unfolded according to a precise plan. I have simply beenpermitted to follow it. And this is what I have done.

Myfather, Martino Zani , class of 1931, was from the ageof fifteen a "porter" on the ice of the towering Mount Adamello in the Italian Alps. As a porter he carried on hisback, for skiers and tourists, food, drink, mountain equipment, and other gear,to the peak of more than ten thousand feet. He and his brothers, little morethan children, took a long and difficult trail that started at the dropping offpoint of a cable car and wound its way upward, with stretches up sheer rockfaces, passing along the Passo Brizio .

Everyday, they faced an eight-hour walk to reach the Adamello shelter, a broad, low building constructed just after the end of the FirstWorld War. The shelter stood on what remained of an alpine barracks, which alsoincluded a little field hospital, right next to a magnificent view of the Lobbia Alta, a neighboring peak. The first approach wentright by there: magnificent, scintillating views, andsnow year round. But under that peaceful blanket of white, nature had hiddenscenes of horrific catastrophe: thousands of dead Italian and Austro-Hungariansoldiers, who for the interminable years of the First World War had defendedthe ridges of those mountains.

It wasa bloody war, called the "White War" precisely because it was foughtin the midst of the perennial white snow. The Adamello is a mountainous mass that at its highest point reaches an elevation of 11,611feet. There, until 1918, ran the border between Italy and Austria. It was thisarea that saw the advance of the Italian alpine units in 1915, to where theGaribaldi lodge stands.

Thepoor Italian soldiers resisted until, in 1918, the Austrians mounted anaggressive attack, aimed at breaking down the defensive line and cutting offthe Italian advance beyond the Piave River. The frontof Tonale-Adamello did not break, but the casualtieswere enormous. Those who did not die in combat then had to deal with theharshness of the three winters that followed. Survival became a tragic battle,in the perennial snow and in that hostile territory, swept by terrible windsand storms, with a temperature that, then as now, could fall to sixty degreesbelow zero. It was in that same place, about a dozen years after the end of thewar, that the oldest summer ski resort in Italy was established by the Brescia chapter of the Club Alpino Italiano .

Alsoin 1935, my dad's father, Grandpa Melchiorre , hadbuilt a cabin using the leftover wood from the wartime barracks. It looked outover the Passo di Salarno , at an elevation of 10,000 feet, and was made of adouble wall of wood and another of sheet metal, with a stove inside and a tablethat could seat six or eight persons.