The Republic: The Pope is physically weak, "yet in full consciousness and in all serenity", Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said last night.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Archbishop Martin, who had regular dealings with the Pope during his own time at the Vatican said John Paul "was offering his heart and his soul totally to the Lord, in preparation for that definitive encounter".
Before becoming Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Martin served as the Vatican's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva and previously held various positions with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
He said he remembered the Pope as " a very kind man, very reflective. When you went to see him you always had to be ready for his asking the deep question." This could often take people by surprise as he was not a man to get involved in details, Archbishop Martin said.
The Pope was "extraordinarily disciplined" and led a "very structured" life. Archbishop Martin recalled that what Pope John Paul was experiencing yesterday was not his first time to be so close to death.
He said the Pope had told one of his biographers that, while in hospital after the attempt on his life in 1981, he had wanted to be the subject of his illness instead of simply remaining the object of treatment. He wanted to know what was happening with his body, with his health. He wanted to be part of what was being done to help him.
He believed that as the Pope approached his last days or hours he wanted "to live out that moment as an active subject. He asked that the Way of the Cross be read for him." He had met with his closest collaborators "in a gesture of closeness and gratitude," Dr Martin said.
Earlier, Dr Martin told RTÉ that the Pope was a man of great courage.
"For a man who was extraordinarily fit, a man who travelled, who expressed himself extremely well, to find at the end of his life that his legs were gone, his expression on his face was gone, his voice now gone, it's a very sad situation.
"But I'm sure that he, as he always was, is very close to the Lord at this stage and knows what's happening to himself," Dr Martin said.
Dr Martin memorably introduced Bono to the Pope in September 1999, saying: "Holy Father, this is Mr Bono, and he is a singer, and has done a lot for the campaign."
Bono, Bob Geldof, Quincy Jones and Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Sachs were part of a delegation from the pressure group Jubilee 2000. They met the Pope to enlist his support for their call for action to resolve Third World debt.