On March 22, 2003, Pope John Paul II received Prof. Martín Carbajo Núñez and gave him a rosary, which he still keeps with veneration.
The meeting began with the celebration of Holy Mass in the private chapel of His Holiness with only about twenty participants, among whom was also Mgr. Antonio Peteiro Freire, then Archbishop of the Diocese of Tangier, who at that time was making an ad limina visit with the other bishops of North Africa. Prof. Carbajo also appears in the photo of the Holy Father with the bishops of North Africa.
Three years earlier, on December 14, 2000, St. John Paul II had received Prof. Carbajo in his private chapel and, at the end of the celebration of Holy Mass, had given him another rosary.