«I remember everything. The sharp noise, the Pope’s body giving way, the blood, the desperate rush. And then him, lying on the ground, at the entrance to the Health Services. I have never forgotten anything.” Angelo Gugel thus recounted the moments of terror of May 13, 1981, when in St. Peter’s Square John Paul II was struck by the attack that forever marked his pontificate – and also the lives of those around him. Gugel was there, a few steps from the Pope, in the Popemobile. Not an occasional witness, but one of the men closest to the Holy Father, linked to him by a daily relationship made of trust and silence.
Angelo Gugel died last night in Rome, at the age of 90. For half a century he had served three Popes as Assistant of the Chamber, a discreet and central figure of the Papal Family: first John Paul I, then John Paul II for almost twenty-seven years, finally Benedict XVI, with whom he concluded his now seventy-year service. He accompanied the pontiffs in their private activities, took care of their daily needs and guaranteed confidentiality and order. A constant presence, never intrusive, always one step behind.
Born on 27 April 1935 in Miane, in the Alta Marca of Treviso, Gugel came from a peasant family. He attended the seminary for two years, then enlisted at a very young age in the Vatican Gendarmerie. Severe tuberculosis had interrupted his journey, but after a long convalescence he was destined for the Governorship. It was Albino Luciani, then bishop of Vittorio Veneto, who wanted him at his side: he had known him for some time, he knew his family, he appreciated his reliability. When Luciani became Pope, for just thirty-three days, Gugel entered the most secretive heart of the Vatican.
Upon the sudden death of John Paul I, he was recalled to the pontifical apartment. “My legs were shaking,” he remembered. With Wojtyła’s election, a long shared journey began. Gugel was a silent witness to journeys, meetings and historic decisions. She accompanied him to the five continents and on the few days of rest, between Cadore and the Aosta Valley, when he too abandoned his dark suit for mountain sweaters and trousers. Always, however, with the same discretion.
Confidentiality was an unwritten rule. «Even in the family – he said – it was normal not to say anything. When we went out privately, my parents found out from the newspapers.” A way of understanding service that today appears almost out of time, but which was then the natural measure of the role.
He continued to talk about the attack of 13 May 1981 in rare interviews with almost painful precision: the bullet, the Pope being supported, the rush towards the Gemelli Polyclinic. Episodes that he did not try to make a spectacle of, but that he felt the duty to consign to memory. Like when he remembered the first homily of John Paul II, read in preview in the private study convened by the Pope himself: “Do not be afraid, open the doors to Christ”. An indescribable emotion that left him almost amazed. Wojtyła asked him to correct the pronunciations. «If I get the accent wrong – the Pope later joked – fifty percent is Angelo’s fault».
Married since 1964 to Maria Luisa Dall’Arche, father of four children, Gugel knew how to keep work and family together without ever mixing up plans. The birth of her youngest daughter, Carla Luciana Maria, was marked by a serious complication. John Paul II prayed for her, celebrated Mass as she was born and wanted to baptize her personally. “Someone must have prayed a lot,” commented a doctor as he left the operating room.
A faithful, polite, shy man, Angelo Gugel embodied a discreet church style, which never seeks the spotlight. After him other riots would come, with the Vatileaks scandal. In 2018 he received the Award named after Giuseppe Toniolo, recognition of a life lived in the concrete ethics of service. Today, from his Miane to the Vatican, there remains the memory of a silent witness to history.
