Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Pope showing first signs of losing consciousness, Vatican says

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Pope showing first signs of losing consciousness, Vatican says

    Pope showing first signs of losing consciousness, Vatican says

    AP Worldstream;
    Apr 02, 2005

    VICTOR L. SIMPSON


    Pope John Paul II's condition remains unchanged and "very grave," and
    he began showing the first signs of losing consciousness at dawn
    Saturday, 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.

    But John Paul is not in a coma and opens his eyes when spoken to,
    papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters. He said the pope
    was still speaking as of Friday night.

    "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.

    When Navarro-Valls went to the papal apartment around 9:30 a.m. (0730
    GMT) Saturday morning, the pope's two secretaries, three nuns from the
    papal household and his personal physician were with John Paul.

    The Vatican said it would issue another update around 5:30-6
    p.m. (1530-1600 GMT). It said its press office would 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.

    Italy canceled all weekend soccer games Saturday out of respect for
    the pope's plight.

    A Vatican cardinal, Achille Silvestrini, said John Paul was able to
    recognize him and another cardinal Saturday morning, the Italian news
    agency ANSA reported.

    John Paul "gave some sign of recognizing people," Silvestrini was
    quoted as saying after paying a call on the pope with Cardinal
    Jean-Louis Tauran.

    "His slow death throes proceed ... but he is showing strong cardiac
    resistance," the Italian news agency Apcom quoted Silvestrini as
    saying after visiting the pontiff Saturday morning.

    "I found him relaxed, placid, serene. He was in his bed. He was
    breathing without labor. He looked like he lost weight," Silvestrini
    said.

    "When I and Cardinal Tauran were brought into his room by Monsignor
    Stanislaw (Dziwisz), who announced us in both Italian and Polish, the
    pope showed with a vibration of his face that he understood,
    indicating with a movement of his eyes. He showed he was reacting," he
    added.

    For a second 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.

    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.

    Tourists and pilgrims streamed anew into St. Peter's Square on
    Saturday, and 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.

    "I am happy, and you should be as well," the note reportedly
    said. "Let us pray together with joy."

    However, Navarro-Valls said he couldn't confirm the report, even after
    speaking to the pope's secretary.

    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.

    Hospitalized twice last month after breathing crises, and fitted with
    a breathing tube and a feeding tube, John Paul has become a picture of
    suffering.

    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 also
    survived a 1981 assassination attempt, when a Turkish gunman shot him
    in the abdomen.

    In Washington, the White House said U.S. President George W. Bush and
    his wife were praying for the pope and that the world's concern was "a
    testimony to his greatness."

    Cardinal Marcio Francesco Pompedda, a high-ranking Vatican
    administrator, visited the pope Friday morning and said he opened his
    eyes and smiled.

    "I understood he recognized me. It was a wonderful smile _ I'll
    remember it forever. It was a benevolent smile _ a father-like smile,"
    Pompedda told RAI television. He told the Milan daily Il Giornale the
    pope was lying in bed propped up by pillows, and twice tried but
    failed to say something.

    "There were various tubes, and an intravenous drip, but I confess that
    I didn't dwell on these details," said Pompedda, adding that the pope
    appeared to be "suffering but serene."

    John Paul's health declined sharply Thursday when he developed a high
    fever brought on by the infection. The pope suffered septic shock and
    heart problems during treatment for the infection, the Vatican said.

    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."
Working...
X