Vatican moves to stop resignation rumours

[emad]

March 31 2005 at 04:38PM

Rome - Hinting that he was passing on a message from top Vatican authorities, a key papal insider said on Thursday that Pope John Paul II would not step down however much his health deteriorates.

"Whatever happens, whatever the evolution of John Paul II's illnesses," the pope will not "resign," wrote Vittorio Messori in Thursday's Corriere della Sera daily.

"He will put an end to his mandate only when he will be called for God's judgment," said Messori, author of several books on the Roman Catholic Church including one based on interviews with the pope.

The Vatican announced on Wednesday that the 84-year-old pontiff was being fed through a nasal tube and admitted that his recovery was slow. The pope appears to have lost weight and has been unable to speak in public since he was released on March 13 from hospital following a throat operation.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1112267161376B211

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. I'm not at all surprised.

He's a determined individual, and knowing his prognosis years ago, I'm sure he has planned for the end of his papacy.

[onehandle]

2. Must be Pope news day.

You'd think someone would tell Catholics like me.

[emad]

3. Ailing Pope is no longer actively running Catholic Church, spokesman indic

John Hooper in Rome
Thursday March 31, 2005
The Guardian

The Vatican indicated for the first time yesterday that Pope John Paul was no longer actively running the Catholic Church. In a statement announcing that the ailing pontiff was now being fed through a tube in his nose, his spokesman said merely that the pontiff was "following" the church's activities.

The latest disclosure about the Pope's treatment came shortly after he had again tried and failed to speak in public. His spokesman, Joaquín Navarro Valls, made clear that the leader of the world's biggest Christian denomination is, for the moment at least, an invalid who spends "many hours" in an armchair.

He said the Pope celebrated mass in his private chapel, but he did not indicate how this was possible. The pontiff has been heard to say only four words since undergoing an operation in February for the insertion of a tube in his windpipe.

Dr Navarro Valls added that the Pope was "in working contact with his aides, directly following the activities of the Holy See and the life of the church". But his public audiences have been suspended.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1448624,00.html

[Stuckinthebush]

4. Why won't he?

Surely he can't be effective in the position. Is it a pride thing or is the position of the Catholic Church that he is pope until death?

[megatherium]

5. I fear the people around the pope will not give up their power;

they will take advantage of the pope's infirmity, his inability to indicate his intentions, to keep power.

The big question mark for me is whether the pope still has mental clarity. If he still has his full mental capacity, he can still fulfill his mandate as leader of the church even in his tragically diminished physical state.

Over the last year, when I've seen video of the pope, he reminds me of my late grandfather in the last year or two of his life -- barely able to speak, too weak to stand. But my grandfather had congestive heart failure, which causes weakness, edema and dementia (the brain is deprived of oxygen). The pope is supposed to have Parkinson's, which causes paralysis but does not affect mental function.

[Bridget Burke]

6. The papal election still uses very old technology.

Those mentioned as "next in line" for the office can't control the vote. They may not be anxious to see what changes a new pope might bring.

After all, who expected a Polish Pope?

[emad]

10. The P2 Lodge

and organised crime cartels linked to cold war Stasi plants

[cliss]

7. Well, he could always appoint

Reverend Bernard Law as the next Pope. Lawless is actually living in the Vatican City....fled from Boston as the heat got turned up too high for comfort.

The Pope made sure his buddy escaped disaster by buying him a one-way ticket to Italy.

[Minstrel Boy]

9. Law lives in Vatican City?

Damn, that's one evil, paedophile-enabling bastard.

[lovuian]

8. The pope is not able to handle the affairs of the Church

This is very sad!!!