The Vatican publishing house produced a 220-page volume, with entries in chronological order, starting with Jan. 31, the day the Holy See's press office announced the late pope's audiences were being suspended because he had flu symptoms.

The publishing house said Saturday the volume, which can be purchased at the Vatican, went on sale in recent days.

A good many of the details in the account have been revealed by the Vatican already but the volume gives some more details.

Its publication might be an effort by the Vatican to try and ward off any future doubts over whether the Holy See has told all about the pontiff's death.

There was much speculation in past decades over how some of John Paul's predecessors have died, notably John Paul I, who was Pope for only 33 days in 1978 before he passed away in his Vatican apartment.

The account goes on to cover John Paul II's symptoms, care and response to treatment during two hospital stays and then during his last days in his Vatican City apartment as he approached death, which came on the evening of April 2.

Six hours before his death and roughly 3 1/2 hours before going into a coma, John Paul said in Polish: "With a very weak voice and with mumbled words: 'Let me go to the house of the Father,"' the Vatican account said.

cnews.canoe.ca

(...)The account is particularly elaborate about John Paul's turn for the worse on the morning of March 31 at his private chapel when he was "hit by a shaking chill, followed by a sharp rise in temperature" to about 103. "Then very grave septic shock set in, with cardio-circulatory collapse, due to a diagnosed infection of the urinary tract," the account said. "The explicit desire of the pope to stay in his apartment was respected," it said of the decision not to hospitalize the pope despite his deteriorating condition. The Vatican account describes the pontiff as experiencing various levels of participation in what was going on around him. John Paul's eyes were practically closed during a Mass celebrated at the foot of his bed in the late afternoon of March 31, the account said. "But at the moment of the consecration, he weakly raised his right hand two times, that is, on the (raising up) of the bread and wine. He made a gesture indicating he was trying to strike his chest during the recitation" of the Lamb of God prayer, the Vatican said. (...)

Associated Press