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Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Pope flies to Pompei shrine despite ailing health
POMPEI, Italy -- Brushing aside concerns about his failing health, Pope John Paul II flew to the southern Italian town of Pompei Tuesday to keep a longstanding promise to pray for world peace at a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
The ailing pope waved to the crowd on the short drive to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary after making the 250-kilometer journey from Vatican to Pompei aboard an Italian military helicopter.
The crowd of around 30,000 pilgrims and local people, many wearing baseball caps in the yellow colors of the Vatican, cheered enthusiastically after the pope opened the ceremony with a greeting from his wheelchair.
John Paul II, who is 83 and suffers from Parkinson's disease and crippling arthritis, has for some time been unable to walk unaided, and his health has deteriorated in recent weeks to the point where senior cardinals have begun to prepare the world's more than one billion Catholics for his demise.
The possibility that his 143rd visit in Italy may well be his last outside the Vatican gave the ceremony extra poignancy.
The pope made his only other visit to the shrine at Pompei in 1979, the second year of his pontificate.
Pompei is best known for the volcanic eruption that engulfed the ancient town in 79 A.D.
Italy's RAI Uno television, which carried the event live, periodically showed footage of a vibrant young John Paul II in the earlier years of his pontificate, emphasising the sense of closure.
Some in the Pompei crowd -- a broad cross-section of government ministers, businessmen in suits, the elderly, and many young people -- periodically shouted "Evviva il Papa" (Long live the Pope) during prayerful lulls in the ceremony. Others held up their state-of-the-art mobile phones to take a picture of the pope.
Throughout, the pope's white vestments billowed in the blustery weather as a series of speakers led the faithful in the rosary prayer.
Many of the pilgrims had held a vigil through much of the night.
Among them was Assumta, an elegantly dressed Pompei woman in her 60s who said she had planned to watch the pope on television but had a last-minute change of heart.
"Unfortunately, we feel this could be the pontiff's last visit in Italy. He is a man who has suffered, especially since the attack on his life, and we admire his courage," she said, referring to a shooting attack on the pope in 1981.
Only 10,000 pilgrims were allowed in the square in front of the basilica, the Marian shrine situated between the Roman ruins and the modern town of Pompei where the pope led the open-air ceremony.
A huge screen was set up in an adjoining area for others unable to reach the square. Nearby was a banner congratulating John Paul II on the upcoming 25th anniversary of his pontificate.
The pope chose Pompei to close the "year of the rosary", which he had proclaimed in a bid to revive what had become a waning practice among Catholics.
The square outside the Marian basilica was decked out with yellow and white flowers, the Vatican's colors, numerous flags, and a huge poster of a much younger and more vigorous pontiff holding a young girl in his arms.
Representatives from the five continents -- including Mexicans, Indians and Senegalese -- opened the ceremony, each lighting a candle before the pope before he recites each of the five sets of prayers.
The frail pontiff faces a grueling schedule of events in the next two weeks, including the upcoming Vatican celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of his election to the papacy, which took place on October 16, 1978.
The following day, October 17, he is to preside over a consistory of all the Catholic Church's cardinals, and the beatification of the late Mother Teresa, the Albanian-born nun who became famous for ministering to the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India.
John Paul II has always appeared determined to fight his illness, and on Sunday, during a long ceremony in St Peter's Square at which he canonized three new saints, he appeared to be in relatively good form.
Nevertheless, four regional hospitals in Campania have been placed on alert for a possible papal medical emergency during Tuesday's ceremony. AFP
(October 8, 2003 issue)
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