Priest admires Pope; asks when it's time to quit

"I understand the Pope and his disability," says Rev. Joseph Cotugno. "He's pushing himself as far as he can push himself, and he's not giving up for one minute. He's a sign of how to deal with an illness: Never give up; live life to the fullest."

On the other hand, if Father Cotugno had a stroke or became too severely disabled to work, he would want an outsider to step in and tell him it was time to give up his position.

He knows what it means to live with an illness: Since 1996, he has spent several days each week at Albany Memorial Hospital's dialysis center, undergoing dialysis as he awaits a kidney transplant -- the result of diabetes.

Father Cotugno directs the diaconate formation program for the Albany Diocese and pitches in with liturgies at Holy Trinity parish in Cohoes.

Limits

At first, the priest's disability isn't readily apparent. Neuropathy in his legs makes him numb from the knees down, but it isn't until he takes a deacon's arm to climb stairs to the altar at Mass -- or his blood pressure drops and he has to lead a group discussion sitting down -- that others realize his limitations.

"I won't explain unless I have to explain," he remarked; but "at Holy Trinity, everybody knows. They respond to me in a marvelous manner."

There's a difference, he believes, between maintaining a certain level of privacy about the details of a disability and hiding it. He said it's important to acknowledge that a condition exists; "otherwise, a person lives in denial, and you can't live in denial when you have a disability. When [actor] Bill Bixby had cancer, he said, `I'm not dying of cancer; I'm living with cancer.' You have to learn how to live with your disability."

Papal illness

Father Cotugno called the Vatican's skirting the question of whether Pope John Paul has Parkinson's disease "fantasy games," since "all you've got to do is look" to realize there is a problem.

However, he doesn't necessarily hold the Pope himself responsible for the evasion.

"I don't know how much control he has over public relations any more," he stated. "He's presented as a man who still has a mind that's active and aware; I'm not sure how much of that he has any more."

Admiration for Pope

Regardless of whether the pontiff reveals the details of his illness, Father Cotugno admires him for continuing to travel and be in the public eye.

"He is flying all over the world," he said. "How many people would be able to expose their distorted body and their illness? He is one of the biggest witnesses to the Church. What he is doing as this maimed pope is astonishing. He doesn't hide himself; he makes real the fact that there is suffering in this world. He speaks of life -- isn't the Christian message [one of] life?"

Staying on

One thing the priest understands but doesn't admire is the Pope's insistence on staying in office despite increasing rumors that he is unable to fulfill his obligations.

"He's a traditionalist, and you've got the strong tradition [that] you die in your boots, you die in office," Father Cotugno explained. "The Church has done that for centuries. I don't think he is capable, coming out of that tradition, of doing anything but staying till he dies. [But] it's not a good tradition. If you're disabled and you can't function, there has to be some way for you to come out of [the position]."

The director noted that there is precedence for change in the Church; in fact, he recalled that when he was ordained, there was no mandatory retirement age for priests in the Albany Diocese. Today, they must retire at 75.

Retirement

The same could apply to the Pope when his disabilities become more severe, the priests believes: "If you're laying there in bed and you can't communicate, what's the sense of staying in the position?"

To date, Vatican officials have downplayed the idea of Pope John Paul stepping down. Father Cotugno sees that as "a power thing" among officials concerned about losing their jobs when a new Pope is elected, and he thinks they'll keep John Paul II in office as long as they can.

"If your boss leaves, what do you think: `Who's going to take his place?'" he remarked.

But the priest said that when a person is disabled, there may come a time when others make the difficult decision to ask him to retire. Father Cotugno used himself as an example: Someday, he said, "somebody outside of myself may see I'm unable to function and have to say, `It's time.' Nobody has said that to me yet. But if I had a stroke....Don't keep me on for the sake of keeping me on."

(11/20/03) [[In-content Ad]]