St John Paul II 'asked aides if he should resign but was advised against it'

St John Paul II discussed stepping down as pope with his aides but was advised against it in the interest of the Catholic Church, his former secretary said in a book recently published in Poland.

A book of interviews with Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, "Secretary of Two Popes", released last month, has offered some insight into the daily life at the Vatican with John Paul and his German-born successor, Benedict XVI.

Archbishop Mokrzycki, now the Archbishop of Lviv, Ukraine, served as St John Paul's secretary from 1996 until the pope's 2005 death. He then became secretary to Benedict from 2005 to 2008.