He recounted his personal experience on a pilgrimage to the Auschwitz camp to exorcist Father Dennis McManus, who had served with him in Washington D.C. while he was archbishop. He told Father McManus he had been in the gas chamber and had been reluctant to go on the VIP tour. He said, “Father Dennis, the pilgrimage seemed like everything I didn’t want to do, but out of respect for those who died there and the group I was with, I went in.” 

And he said to him: “I must speak to you, can I speak to you?”

And Father Dennis said, “Sure, come.”

And Cardinal Hickey told him: “This is what happened to me in the Auschwitz crematorium.

“I had gone through the gas chamber itself and entered the Auschwitz crematorium; there is no partition between the crematorium and the gas chamber itself; it was an open space. 

“We walked in and what had happened there was horrible for our consciences.

“There was still a stretcher present that had bone fragments and ashes of the deceased.”

They don’t have that now, but when he was there, that was on display so people could see the evidence. So there could be no denial.

He continued: “It was overwhelming for most of us, but I said, ‘I am a priest first and last.’

“And while I was there, I said, ‘I must pray for those who died here.’”

And as any priest would do to bless an object or a person, he placed his hand on the bone fragments and ashes on the stretcher. 

He said he closed his eyes: “I prayed deeply and with great passion that God would have mercy on all those who died here in this way.”

“And when I was praying like this for some time, I heard another group coming in behind me and I said, ‘Wow, it’s another group of tourists, I have to get out of their way.’”

“But before I could do so: I realized they were standing around me in the crematorium.

“I looked up and saw that it was a group of survivors, Jews who had been in that camp and were wearing these striped prison uniforms that the Nazis had designed.” 

And he further explained: “They were extremely friendly, very kind, but they all spoke in different languages.”

“I didn’t know Czech or Polish or Yiddish. I didn’t know Russian. And all these Jews were like they were trying to tell me something.” 

“I apologized and said, ‘I’m so sorry I interrupted your group. I’m just a priest, I’m leaving now, please forgive me, I didn’t mean to offend.’”

“And as I apologized to them, I took my hand off the stretcher, and as soon as I did, all the Jews in front of me disappeared.” 

“Father Dennis, I’m standing there and I’m talking to them like I’m talking to you and when I apologized and moved my hand away from the ashes, they were gone.”

“So I just stood there and cried; I was so scared and so shocked; I had no way to sort out my feelings.”

“I went back to the hotel and couldn’t sleep; I didn’t know what to do with this. I’d never had an experience of seeing the dead in this way.”

And he thought: “I know what I’m going to do; I’m not going to fly home to Washington D.C. I’m going to Rome to see John Paul II. 

“I trust John Paul II absolutely; he understands these things of the spirit. 

“I have seen him say Mass, and it was very interesting when John Paul II said Mass, for there were points in the Roman Canon, the Eucharistic prayer, where he simply went to Heaven through the prayer.”

The cardinal arrived in Rome, asked to see the Pope, and told him what had occurred.

And once John Paul II heard it, he said this to Cardinal Hickey: “Your Eminence, you are not the first priest to tell me about this experience in the concentration camps. Many priests have found this, that the souls of the dead approach very tenderly those who pray for them and become visible.”

And then the cardinal asked: “What did they want?” 

And the Pope said, “It’s something they want you to do for them and for the Jews who are still alive.” 

“What, Holiness?”

“Something to ensure this never happens again.” 

“It is a kind of reparation for the sins of those who did this to them.”

Well, that’s all about the supernatural experience that Cardinal Hickey had during a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp and the interpretation given to it by John Paul II.

And I would like to ask you who you think those souls were: wandering souls who were clinging to the place where they had died, souls in purgatory fulfilling a mission for God, or something else?Full article https://spiritdaily.org/blog/afterlife/forums-when-john-paul-ii-discerned-deceased-spirits-at-auschwitz