SILENT WITNESS
Born in Miane in the Treviso area of Italy, Angelo came from a farming family.
Wanting to become a priest, he spent two years in a seminary before being recruited to be a Vatican Gendarme. These are the security forces of the Vatican City.
Shortly after arriving, Angelo contracted tuberculosis and was extremely ill. It took him a long time to recover. When he did so, he returned to work at the Vatican but abandoned the idea of becoming a priest.
Angelo married Maria Luisa Dall’Arche in 1964. Their first child was stillborn, but the couple went on to have four more children: Rafaella, Flaviana, Guidot and Carla Luciana Maria.
In the 1970s, one of Angelo’s duties was to drive Archbishop (Cardinal) Albino Luciani around Rome. He was the Archbishop of Vittorio Veneto.
Cardinal Luciani knew Angelo’s mother very well and had also ordained his brother-in-law, Father Mario Dall’Arche.
Angelo and his wife, Maria, were even invited to dinner at the Cardinal’s lodgings.
Pope Paul 6th died in August 1978.
Shortly afterwards, Angelo was on annual leave with his family, visiting his hometown of Miane.
He was amazed to learn that Cardinal Luciani had been elected the new pontiff, taking the name Pope John Paul 1st.
Then a message was received. ‘Tell Gugel to return immediately to Rome in a black dress.’
Angelo desperately searched the shops of Miane for suitable attire before hurrying back to the Italian capital.
There, he was informed that the new Pope had chosen him as his ‘First Assistant of the Chamber of His Holiness (Chamberlain)’. His role, as personal attendant to the Pope, was to look after his everyday needs (as opposed to his spiritual requirements). The position is sometimes called ‘The Pope’s Butler’.
Angelo organised the papal apartments, was in charge of luggage during papal visits, accompanied the Pope during audiences, held the rosaries the pontiff gives out, collected gifts that visitors brought and even served at the Pope’s table.
It was a long working day. Angelo left the Pope at 10:30 in the evening and woke him up the following morning at 7:00am.
The Pope said to Angelo, “You are at my service. Should I no longer be here, you will have back the same position you had before, at any time.”
John Paul was very prescient. On 28th September 1978, Angelo found the Pope dead in his bed. He had been pontiff for just thirty-three days.
There were many conspiracy theories about Pope John Paul’s death but Angelo always dismissed them. “It’s nonsense! The afternoon before his death the Pope was not feeling well. At dinner, he ate very little. I brought him a pill myself before he went to bed.”
Angelo assumed his role as Chamberlain was over.
Therefore, he was stunned when he was summoned to meet the next Pope, the Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (who had taken the papal name John Paul 2nd). “Mr Gugel is to report to the Pope’s private apartment just as he is dressed.”
Angelo admitted he was very nervous. “My legs were trembling when I was called back to the Apartment after the death of John Paul the first.”
He found the new Pope with his household, two Albertine Sisters (nuns) from Krakow and his personal secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz. None of these could speak any Italian, and the Pope himself was limited in the language. (Dziwisz later replaced the Pope as Archbishop of Krakow).
Angelo was invited to keep his position as Chamberlain, to provide continuity with the previous regime. He was also required to translate every speech and declaration the Pope made, and to coach him in correct pronunciation. He said he was glad to serve a Pope, “Who had come from so very far away.”
From now on, Angelo was always at the Pope’s side dressed in a sharp black suit. The only time he was ever in civilian clothes was on his short family holiday each year.
Angelo was quiet, discreet and sought no attention. He refused to give any interviews. He would not even tell his family anything that had happened in the Vatican. “They had to read it in the newspapers like everyone else.”
He was described as, “Indispensable but invisible to the public eye – a silent witness.”
The Pope and Angelo grew very close. One observer said, “I always felt they understood each other without words.”
Angelo said, “I knew I was serving a saint.”
He even held an umbrella over the Pope whenever it was raining.
The two nuns did the cooking for the Pope, but the food was extremely bland. Consequently, Angelo took over cooking, introducing the Pope to Italian cuisine. This tickled Angelo’s wife, Maria. Angelo said to John Paul, “I wanted my wife to know, we’re feeding you properly.”
In 1980, a crisis hit the Gugel family. Maria was pregnant with their fourth child when there were complications –“Very serious problems arose in the uterus.” Gynecologists told her she would need an immediate Caesarean – and there was absolutely no chance that the baby would survive.
The Pope told Angelo, “Today, I celebrated Mass for your wife.”
The operation was an unexpected success and the baby survived. One of the surgeons said to Angelo, “Someone must have prayed a lot.”
When the nuns told the Pope that the baby had survived, he said, “Deo Gratis (Thank God)”.
Angelo always believed the Pope had performed a miracle.
The baby was baptised in the Pope’s private chapel, with John Paul leading the service. She was called Carla Luciana Maria – partly in tribute to Luciani, the previous Pope.
Angelo was standing on the balcony next to the Pope on 13th May 1981, when there was an assassination attempt on him. Ali Agca shot John Paul.
The Pope collapsed into Angelo’s arms. Angelo carried him to an ambulance and rode alongside him to the Gemelli Hospital. “I remember every detail.” He always considered it a miracle he had not been hit by any bullets himself.
He was at the Pope’s side throughout his recovery. Angelo was also present when John Paul met the man who had shot him – and forgave him.
Angelo was also a witness at the beatification of Pope John Paul 1st.
Angelo served John Paul 2nd for twenty-seven years, travelling everywhere with him. He went to five continents and was even by the Pope’s side when the pontiff took the occasional holiday.
When the Pope lay dying in 2005, the whole Gugel family were summoned to his bedside. John Paul was slipping into unconsciousness.
The last of the family to arrive was Carla Luciana Maria. As she walked in the Pope roused himself, pointed at her and said, “I recognise you, I know who you are.”
When John Paul died, Angelo was asked to be the chamberlain for the new Pope, Benedict 16th (Joseph Ratzinger).
He performed this role for nine months, allowing the Pope to settle in, but after this time, Angelo resigned. He was seventy and well past retirement age.
Angelo was very surprised that his successor, Paul Gabriel, refused any support or advice from him.
Shortly after being appointed, Gabriel was implicated in the Vatileaks scandal. He had been photocopying thousands of private and confidential documents and leaking them to the press.
Angelo gave one interview after the death of John Paul, in which he gave a few quirky details about the late pontiff.
He revealed John Paul was terrified of helicopters, never made any request for food, always eating what was put before him, and he liked to cover all his food (especially salads) with Parmesan cheese.
Angelo died after a long illness, aged ninety.
His funeral mass took place in Miane church and was led by Cardinal Parolin. He was described as, “A good man, a most beloved husband, an exemplary father, gentle, discreet and just.” Four other cardinals attended the service.
The current Pope, Leo 14th, sent a message, praising Angelo’s “Uprightness of life and exemplary Christian witness.”
RIP – Repeatedly Improving Papacy
