Factbox: Extracts of Pope John Paul’s will

VATICAN CITY- The Vatican has released Pope John Paul's last will and testament.

The document was written in Polish between 1979 and 2000. It indicates that he may have considered resignation in the year 2000 and believed that divine intervention saved him from death in a 1981 assassination attempt. Here are some extracts from the text, in the order in which they were written:

The following English translation was made by Reuters from the official Italian translation given by the Vatican. 

**"I don't know when it (death) will come but, like everything else, I entrust even that moment into the hands of the Mother of my Master."

**"I leave behind no property to be disposed of. As far as the daily things I need, I ask that they be distributed as seen fit. Personal notes should be burned," the Pope writes, asking his long-time personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, to do this.

He specifically thanks Dziwisz for his dedication and adds: "All other thanks instead I leave in my heart before God himself, because it is difficult to express them" (1979) 

**"The times that we live in are unspeakably difficult and disturbing. Even the life of the Church has become difficult and tense...the Church is in a period of persecution which is not inferior to that of the early centuries. Indeed, it exceeds them in the level of ruthlessness and hate. (1980)

** "As 2000, the year of the Jubilee, moves ahead, day-by-day we are closing behind us the 20th century and opening the 21st century. By the designs of Providence, it fell upon me to live in a difficult century which is moving into the past." (2000) 

** "On May 13, 1981, the day of the assassination attempt on the Pope during the general audience in St. Peter's Square, Divine Providence saved me in a miraculous way from death. He who is the only Lord of life and death prolonged this life and in a certain sense gave me the gift of a new one. From this moment it belongs even more to him. I hope He (God) helps me understand until what moment I have to continue in this service to which he called me on October 16, 1978." (2000) 

** "May Divine Providence be praised that the so-called "Cold War" ended without violent nuclear conflict, the danger of which weighed so heavily on the world..." (2000) 

** "How can one not embrace with grateful remembrance all the Episcopal conferences of the world ... How can I not also remember so many Christian brothers -- non-Catholics! The rabbi of Rome and so many representatives of non-Christian religions. And so many representatives from the world of culture, of science, of politics and social communications." (2000) 

**"To everyone I want to say just one thing: "May God reward you!" (2000) 

The Pope ended the will in Latin with the phrase Christ said before he died on the cross:

"Into your hands, I commit my spirit." (2000)

- REUTERS