John Paul's final words revealed by Vatican

STRUGGLING to breathe, Pope John Paul II mumbled his final words in Polish: "Let me go to the house of the Father." Six hours later, the comatose pontiff died, the Vatican says.

The account of John Paul's final hours appears in a meticulous official report on his last weeks, released in what may be an effort to ward off doubts about how forthcoming the Vatican has been about his illness and April 2 death.

There was much speculation in past decades over how some pontiffs died.