ROME (CNS) — The man responsible for promoting the cause of sainthood for Pope John Paul II said the thousands of documents that crossed his desk showed that the public pontiff and the private man were one and the same.

Msgr. Slawomir Oder, who as postulator of the process of canonization of the late Pope oversaw the gathering of innumerable papal documents, personal letters, diplomatic dispatches, testimony from friends, Church officials and the faithful, said the material showed “the complete transparency of his life as a man and as a priest.”

Msgr. Oder spoke Feb. 25 at the Legionaries of Christ’s Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University in Rome about how he had gotten to know the Polish Pope through the material that testified to his life.

On Jan. 14, after five years of investigation into the life of the late Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI approved a miracle attributed to his intercession, clearing the way to the beatification, which will take place May 1 at St. Peter’s Square.

The Pope the world came to know through his many travels and high visibility was the real Karol Wojtyla, Msgr. Oder said.

“His friendliness, his love for prayer, his spontaneity, his ability to create a rapport with people” were not traits that were invented by the media, but rather “constituted the essence of his own personality,” he said.

Msgr. Oder said Pope John Paul’s life was like a mosaic with many pieces, the fundamental one being his identity as “a man of prayer.” Prayer had been like a “daily pilgrimage” and a “spring of life” from the time he was a young boy to the end of his life, the postulator said.

Msgr. Oder described some of the Pope’s prayer habits: From 5 to 6am, he prayed in the chapel with members of the papal household; he spent the hour of 6 to 7am in meditation, with Mass at 7am. The Pope was especially devoted to saints, and after breakfast he would venerate relics that he kept. At night, he would read about the lives of saints.

A second, fundamental tile in the mosaic of Pope John Paul’s personality was “an extraordinary inner freedom,” Msgr. Oder said. He called the late Pope a “man of poverty” who was “completely detached from money and things ... who did not seek personal realization.”

This personal freedom allowed him to accept counsel and criticism from his aides, while remaining autonomous when making decisions and when taking difficult positions, Msgr. Oder said. The Pope felt his duty was “not to be liked at any cost, but to announce the truth,” he said.

His ability to empathize with the pain and the joy of the faithful is what made him so dear to so many people who saw in Pope John Paul a father, an uncle or a grandfather, Msgr. Oder said. He was seen as a father figure by the thousands of young Catholics who attended the World Youth Day events, thanks to his ability to enter fully into dialogue with young people, the monsignor said.

The postulator also spoke of the meaning of the cross to Pope John Paul, especially during the last years as his suffering became so visible. “He bore his illness with serenity and carried out his duties without being a burden to anyone,” he said.

Despite the difficulties he suffered in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease, the Pope wanted to celebrate his last Easter of April 2005, Msgr. Oder said. “Millions of people throughout the world will always remember the image, shown on television, of the Pope seen from behind in his private chapel, holding tight the cross during the celebration of Good Friday.”