Pope's health carries lesson

During my visit to Rome last week (see article beginning on page 1), I was surprised and saddened at how much Pope John Paul II's appearance has changed since I last saw him three years ago.

There is no longer the strong voice and smiling face; seemingly, he cannot stand at all; someone else reads his homily; many of the Mass prayers are assigned to others; his voice is tremulous, weak and often unclear.

What do those facts mean? I spent time in Rome at the Vatican Press Office, chatting with colleagues from my time as head of the Rome bureau for Catholic News Service. I talked especially to the correspondents from Associated Press, Reuters, Catholic News Service and ABC. I learned that even in a city always rife with rumors, no one questions the Pope's mental acuity. With Parkinson's, people's minds can be clear long after their physical deterioration has begun.

The belief is common (though unconfirmed) that the Pope has written a letter of resignation, which he will use when he senses that the good of the Church warrants it. As a student of history, John Paul knows that nine popes have resigned voluntarily before him (though none since 1294), and surely the welfare of the Church would be paramount in his thinking. Most close Vatican watchers, including some of the more astute ones, do not think that the resignation date is imminent.

Everything else being equal, the Church is better represented by someone strong and vigorous, they said, but what kind of signal would be sent to the disabled and the handicapped were the Pope to step down because his speaking ability is limited though his mind is clear?

Moreover, say these same observers, the Pope sees his frailty as a witness to the faithful, a lesson in how to continue living the Gospel at a later but normal stage of life, when the rigors of old age and disease begin to take their toll.

Said one long-term Vatican correspondent last week: "The Pope is always up to something. Now he's teaching us how to be sick."

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