Poetic papal meditation

Sydney
19 January

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Poetic papal meditation

Pope John Paul II, a prolific poet and playwright in his younger days, has written a new poetic meditation on religious themes - Roman Triptych: Meditations of John Paul II - that will be published soon.

It is reportedly a 10-page meditation on death and the afterlife and reads something like a spiritual last testament. But the Vatican says it "does not deal with a reflection on death and future life but rather with a poetical-religious meditation".

It said the Pope hopes it "does not focus readers' attention on his person, but on that which he holds in his heart and which he desires to express in poetic form for the glory of God".

Some of his pre-pontificate poems were published in English in 1998 by Random House under the title: The Place Within: The Poetry of Pope John Paul II.

Since his 1978 election, Pope John Paul has published several personal books in addition to his many encyclicals, apostolic letters and official papal texts.