|
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Pope 'prepares to meet the Lord'
VATICAN CITY -- Around the world, the faithful lit candles, prayed and reflected on Pope John Paul II's legacy Saturday, as he neared death.
Some worshippers hoped for a dignified end to his suffering.
The Pope's condition remained unchanged and "very grave," and there were moments his consciousness "was compromised," the Vatican said.
The 84-year-old Pope's health has rapidly deteriorated, with his heart and kidneys failing after he suffered a urinary tract infection.
At a noon mass in Wadowice, the southern Polish town of 20,000 where the Pope was born, the Reverend Krzysztof Glowka told a packed church, "We are here to be with John Paul in his agony, to experience, together with him, this great mystery of life that is death."
"Now, as a sick and dying person, he is teaching us the most important lesson, the lesson of dying and the lesson of perseverance," he said.
The Pope was not in a coma and managed to open his eyes when spoken to, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters. He said the Pope was still speaking as of Friday night.
Gave thanks
"Mass was celebrated at 7:30 this morning in the presence of the Pope," although the pontiff did not concelebrate the rite, the spokesman said.
"Sometimes it seems as if he were resting with his eyes closed, but when you speak to him, he opens his eyes," he said.
The Vatican's press office was scheduled to remain open all night for a second night.
Navarro-Valls said aides had told the Pope that thousands of young people were in St. Peter's Square on Friday evening.
"In fact, he seemed to be referring to them when, in his words, and repeated several times, he seemed to have said the following sentence: 'I have looked for you. Now you have come to me. And I thank you'," the spokesman said.
John Paul "gave some sign of recognizing people," Cardinal Achille Silvestrini was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency Ansa after paying a call on the Pope with Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran.
Very grave
For the second straight day, the Vatican announced a series of papal appointments, including a Spanish bishop, an official of the Armenian Catholic Church and ambassadors to El Salvador and Panama.
But John Paul's overall condition, which has rapidly deteriorated since Thursday, remained unchanged and very serious, the Vatican said.
"The general cardio-respiratory and metabolic conditions are substantially unvaried and therefore very grave. Since dawn this morning, there have been first signs that consciousness is being affected," Navarro-Valls said.
One of the Pope's closest aides, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was quoted Saturday as saying that when he saw the pontiff on Friday morning, John Paul was "aware that he is passing to the Lord."
The Pope "gave me the final farewell," the news agency of the Italian bishops conference quoted the German cardinal as saying Friday night.
Preparation
Tourists and pilgrims streamed anew into St. Peter's Square Saturday.
Around the world, priests readied Roman Catholics for the Pope's passing. Many expressed hope that his final hours would be peaceful.
"Now he prepares to meet the Lord," Cardinal Francis George said at a Mass in Chicago on Friday. "As the portals of death open for him, as they will for each of us, we must accompany him with our own prayers."
A workman in the square, declining to give his name, told The Associated Press that crews were taking down the canopy on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, which had covered an altar during Easter Sunday Mass, because they had orders to clear the space for when the Pope's coffin eventually is carried into the square.
In a sign of the Pope's decline, several cardinals from the United States and Latin America said they were heading to Rome.
After the official mourning period following the death of a Pope, cardinals hold a secret vote in the Sistine Chapel to choose a successor.
The Il Secolo XIX newspaper of Genoa reported that the Pope, with the help of his private secretary Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, wrote a note to his aides urging them not to weep for him.
Fearless
"I am happy, and you should be as well," the note reportedly said. "Let us pray together with joy."
This remained unconfirmed, however.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Vatican's health care office, told Mexico's Televisa dal Vaticano that the Pope "is about to die."
"I talked to the doctors and they told me there is no more hope," the Mexican cardinal told the television channel.
As word of his deteriorating condition spread across the globe, special masses celebrated the pope for transforming the Roman Catholic Church during his 26-year papacy and for his example in fearlessly confronting death.
His papacy has been marked by its call to value the aged and to respect the sick, subjects the pope has turned to as he battles Parkinson's disease and crippling knee and hip ailments.
The Pope's health declined sharply Thursday when he developed a high fever brought on by an infection. The Pope suffered septic shock and heart problems during treatment for the infection, the Vatican said.
Appeal
Septic shock involves both bacteria in the blood and a consequent over-relaxing of the blood vessels. The vessels, which are normally narrow and taut, get floppy in reaction to the bacteria and can't sustain any pressure.
That loss of blood pressure is catastrophic, making the heart work hard to compensate for the collapse.
Dr. Gianni Angelini, a professor of cardiac surgery at Bristol University in England, said the chances of an elderly person in John Paul's condition surviving septic shock more than 48 hours was no more than 20 percent, "but that would be in an intensive care unit with very aggressive treatment."
The first non-Italian Pope in centuries, John Paul had a manner that made people around the world think of him as their own.
Even non-Catholics embraced John Paul, crediting him for ending wars, spreading democracy and combating religious animosity. He transformed the papacy from an arbiter of religious doctrine to a global advocate for peace, understanding and responsibility. (AP)
(April 3, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
