A day in the life of Paul VI

Considering the ever-increasing amount of important work every Pope has to carry out, one really wonders how the Pope finds, or creates, time for, all this in his daily life.

The work includes the immense volume of doctrinal documents, Apostolic Letters and Exhortations, diplomatic addresses to ambassadors on the day of the presentation of their credentials, the drafting of encyclical letters, his frequent presence and personal interest at various bishops' synods, the preparation of so many important speeches, and of homilies, when on a pastoral visit to other countries.

As far as one remembers, the only time a Vatican spokesman had given journalists an account of a day in the life of a Pope, was on the day Pope Paul VI marked his 80th birthday. It was then that Fr Romeo Panciroli, with the Holy Father's consent, gave Catholics a clear idea of the everyday schedule that Paul VI followed behind the closed doors of the papal apartments. This sharing of information took place 30 years ago, in 1977. More or less, it was on these lines:

About 6 a.m. the Pope rises, awakened by the same alarm clock he used in his youthful days. His arthritic condition in his knees was specially painful in the early hours of the morning, but the pain lessens as the day progresses.

He celebrated Mass in Latin, according to the revised post-Conciliar liturgy, in his private chapel. On weekdays he is assisted by his two private secretaries (Mgr Pasquale Macchi, of Milan, and Fr John McGee of Northern Ireland). On Sundays the "congregation" includes the five Sisters of the Child Mary, who keep the Papal house.

Fr Panciroli says: "During breakfast, Pope Paul reads the newspapers, including Italy's official Communist newspaper, L'Unità.

"Paul Paul VI then gets to his office at 8.45 and enters his private study at 10 to begin receiving visitors. (He interrupts the office routine on Tuesday - this day he devotes to writing the topic of his weekly audience, which he delivers at 11 a.m. on Wednesday).

"By 1.30 the Pope has finished the private audiences and takes in TV and radio news before eating a 'simple and frugal' midday meal. After a short visit to the chapel, the Pope returns to his bedroom for a rest".

After his rest, the Pope reads until 5.30 and then prays part of the Breviary with his secretaries, in Latin. Then he goes back to work in his private office until supper, which is "always very light".

It is before supper when the Pope usually works with top Vatican officials including the Papal Secretary and Under Secretary of State. (It is said that the former Under Secretary of State, the late Archbishop Benelli, often brought the Pope so much paperwork that he had to ask a Swiss Guard to help him carry in the stacks of folders).

Fr Panciroli told the journalists that after supper the Pope recites the Rosary, and at 9.30 returns to work. He normally stops work between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. He ends his day with the recitation of Compline and a final visit to his private chapel.

To questions put to him by journalists, Fr Panciroli answered: "Some have called Pope Paul VI cold, distant, austere and removed, but these are judgments which only people who have never been close to him, can make".

All those close to Paul VI assert he had a sense of God, a sense of the Father who is merciful to all and inclines his heart to every life. The strongly contemplative character of Paul VI helped him to be a hard worker deeply immersed in the silence of the mystery.