In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen! Magnificat!
I was baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity; I firmly believed in It, through the mercy of God; I enjoyed its loving presence in the smallness of my soul (I felt inhabited by the Trinity). Now I enter "into the joy of my Lord", in direct contemplation, "face to face", of the Trinity. Until now "I have pilgrimaged from afar towards the Lord", now "I see him as He is". I am happy. Magnificat!
«I came from the Father and came into the world; now I leave the world again, and go to the Father." Thank you, Lord and my God, Father of mercies, for calling me and waiting for me. Because you embrace me in the joy of your forgiveness.
Don't cry for my passing! "If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father." I only ask you to continue to accompany me with your affection and your supplication and to pray a lot for my soul.
Magnificat! I entrust myself to the heart of Mary, my good Mother, the Faithful Virgin, to help me give thanks to the Father and ask forgiveness for my countless sins.
Magnificat! I thank you, Father, for the gift of life. How beautiful it is to live! You made us, Lord, for Life. I love it, I offer it, I await it, You are Life, as you have always been my Truth and my Way.
Magnificat! I thank the Father for the priceless gift of my Baptism which made me a child of God and a living temple of the Trinity. I regret that I did not fulfill my baptismal vocation to holiness well.
Magnificat! I thank the Lord for my priesthood. I felt extraordinarily happy to be a priest and I would like to pass on this profound joy to today's young people, as my best testament and legacy.
The Lord has been good to me. May the souls who have received the presence of Jesus through my priestly ministry pray for my eternal rest! I ask forgiveness, with all my soul, for the good I failed to do as a priest. I am fully aware that there have been many sins of omission in my priesthood, for not having generously been what I should have been before the Lord. Perhaps now, as I die, I will begin to be truly useful: "if a grain of wheat falls into the ground... and dies, it produces much fruit." My priestly life has always been characterized by three loves and presences: the Father, Mary Most Holy and the Cross.
Magnificat! I give thanks to God for my ministry of service in the Episcopate. How good God has been to me! I wanted to be "father, brother and friend" of priests, men and women religious, of all the People of God. I wanted to be a simple presence of "Christ, Hope of Glory". I always wanted to be so, in the various services that God asked of me as Bishop: Auxiliary of La Plata, Apostolic Administrator of Avellaneda, General Secretary and President of CELAM, Bishop of Mar del Plata and then, by order of Pope Paul VI, Prefect of Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes and finally, by benevolent disposition of Pope John Paul II, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. I regret that I have not been more useful as a Bishop, that I have disappointed the hopes of many and the trust of my beloved Fathers, Popes Paul VI and John Paul II. However, I accept my poverty with joy. I want to die with an entirely poor soul.
I would like to express my thanks to the Holy Father, John Paul II, for entrusting me, in April 1984, with the animation of the lay faithful. The building of the "civilization of love" depends immediately on them. I love them enormously, I hug them and bless them; and I thank the Pope for his trust and for his affection.
Magnificat! I give thanks to God who, through the Holy Father Paul VI, called me to serve the Universal Church in the privileged field of consecrated life. How I love the men and women religious and all the consecrated lay people in the world! How I invoke Mary Most Holy for them! How joyfully I offer my life today so that they may be faithful! I am Cardinal of the Holy Church. I thank the beloved Holy Father Paul VI for this undeserved nomination. I thank the Lord for making me understand that the Cardinalate is a vocation to martyrdom, a call to pastoral service and a deeper form of spiritual fatherhood. I feel so happy to be a martyr, to be a Pastor, to be a Father.
Magnificat! I thank the Lord for the privilege of the cross. I feel very happy to have suffered a lot. I'm only sorry that I didn't suffer well and that I didn't always savor my cross in silence. I wish that, at least now, my cross will begin to be bright and fruitful. May no one feel guilty of making me suffer, because it was a providential instrument of a Father who loved me very much. Yes, I ask for forgiveness, with all my soul, because I have made so many people suffer!
Magnificat! I thank the Lord because he made me understand the Mystery of Mary in the Mystery of Jesus and because the Virgin was so present in my personal life and in my ministry. I owe everything to her. I confess that I owe the fruitfulness of my word to Her. My great dates - of cross and joy - have always been Marian dates.
Magnificat! I thank the Lord because my ministry has almost always been carried out, in a privileged way, at the service of priests and seminarians, of men and women religious, and lately of the lay faithful. I ask the priests to whom, in my long ministry, I have been able to do some good, the charity of a Mass for my soul.
I thank them all for the gift of their priestly friendship. I wish the seminarians - all those whom God has placed along my path one day - a holy and fruitful priesthood: may they be souls of prayer, may they savor the cross, may they love the Father and Mary! I ask the beloved men and women religious, "my glory and my crown", to live their consecration and their mission with profound joy. I say the same to the dear lay people consecrated in the providential calling of the Secular Institutes. I ask everyone to forgive my bad examples and my sins of omission.
Magnificat! I thank God for having been able to expend my poor strength and talents in dedication to my dear lay people, whose friendship and testimony have enriched me spiritually. I loved Catholic Action very much.
If I haven't done more it's because I didn't know how to do it. God allowed me to work with the laity starting from the peasant simplicity of Mercedes (Argentina) up to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Magnificat!
I ask forgiveness from God for my countless sins, from the Church for not having served her more generously, from souls for not having loved them in a more heroic and concrete way. If I have offended someone, I ask them for forgiveness: I wish to die with a clear conscience. And if anyone believes they have offended me, I want them to experience the joy of my forgiveness and my fraternal embrace.
I thank everyone for their friendship and trust. I thank my beloved parents - who I will now meet in heaven - for the faith they passed on to me. I thank all my brothers for their spiritual company and for their affection, especially my sister Zulema.
I love Pope John Paul II with all my soul, I renew my complete availability to him, I ask his forgiveness for everything I was unable to do as Prefect of the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes and as President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. God is witness to my total dedication and goodwill.
I thank him for the delicacy and goodness of wanting to appoint me Cardinal Bishop of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto. I renew to the beloved Servants of Christ the Priest, who have accompanied me for many years, all my gratitude, my paternal affection and my profound veneration for their specific, so providential vocation in the Church.
I love them very much, I pray for them and I bless them in Christ and in Holy Mary.
I thank my dear and faithful Secretary, RP Fernando Vérgez, Legionary of Christ, for his affection and loyalty, for his close and efficient company, for his collaboration, his patience and his goodness.
I ask that Masses be celebrated for me and that you pray for my soul and for those of the many people whom no one remembers. In a particular way I want prayers for the sanctification of priests, men and women religious and all consecrated souls.
I wish to die calm and serene: forgiven by the mercy of the Father, by the maternal goodness of the Church, by the affection and understanding of my brothers. I have no enemies, thank God; I don't feel resentment or envy towards anyone. I ask everyone to forgive me and pray for me.
See you when we reunite in the Father's House! I embrace everyone wholeheartedly for the last time in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! I place everyone in the heart of Mary, the poor, contemplative and faithful Virgin. Ave Maria! I ask her: «Show us after this exile Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb».
Cardinal Eduardo F. Pironio
President of the Pontificium Consilium pro Laicis
Rome, February 11 1996
