POPE JOHN PAUL HAS CANCER

Pope John Paul has inoperable stomach cancer which recently spread to his colon. A team of palliative medical specialists is now permanently based in the Papal Apartment in the Apostolic Palace.

They administer drugs to try and ensure the Pope will live to carry out the three climatic events of his 25 years on the Throne of St Peter.

They revolve around the anniversary of his election on Wednesday (October 16). The celebrations are planned to include the beatification of Mother Theresa and presiding over the consistory, or assembly, of cardinals, including the 31 he has just created.

But increasingly the Vatican is preparing the world’s 800 million Catholics for his impending death.

The Vatican will not discuss the specific details of the Pope’s medical condition or confirm the cancer diagnosis.

But in 1992, John Paul had major surgery to remove a large intestinal tumour which doctors diagnosed as cancerous. Two weeks ago, there was evidence that the disease had returned. Last Wednesday, the Vatican announced that John Paul’s regular general audience in St Peter’s Square was cancelled because the Pope had complained of “intestinal” problems.

A colonoscopy was performed. The first indication of the gravity of the situation came shortly afterwards. Two cardinals revealed that the 83 year-old Pope “is failing fast”.

The most explicit was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and one of the most powerful figures in the Vatican. He said the Pope “is in a bad way”.

His decision to speak publicly was seen by the Curia, the structured hierarchal body which is the Holy See’s civil service, as proof it could be only a short time before they must prepare for the election of a new pontiff.

The Holy See’s diplomats and its papal nuncios were alerted to the situation by the Secretariat of State. Traditionally heads of the diplomatic corps of each nation where they are accredited, they told fellow ambassadors of the position.

In Ireland, as in other countries, they would also have discreetly briefed the government and President Mary McAleese.

Such briefings, especially those relating to the Pope’s ailing health, are discussed on a strictly need-to-know basis.

That was why Cardinal Ratzinger’s public pronouncement caused alarm bells to ring across the Catholic world.

Not only was it unexpected and unprecedented, but it was quickly followed by another prelate issuing a statement.

One of the newly appointed cardinals, Archbishop Phillipe Barbarin of Lyon, France, said “the Pope is reaching the end of his road and is really in bad shape”.

This weekend, candles are being lit and special prayers offered in cathedrals and churches around the world.

Cardinals have been told to be ready to fly to Rome at short notice. Several are already going there this coming week, possibly to be on hand to say their farewells.

Mgr George Gainswein, Cardinal Ratzinger’s secretary, said last Thursday that “His Holiness can no longer walk or stand. He is falling apart more and more each day”.

Yet, despite the evidence of his ever-more rapid deterioration, John Paul has continued to directly involve himself in what has been one of the pillars of his pontificate: human rights.

On Friday, he sent a message to his Papal Nuncio in Colombia that he wanted the local Church there to become directly involved trying to free British TV producer Mark Henderson, 31, and the six other hostages held by ELN, the country’s most ruthless terror group. The backpackers were kidnapped three weeks ago.

This weekend two priests are travelling deep into Colombia’s northern jungles to meet with the kidnappers and bring with them the Pope’s plea.

“They will tell them that it is the Holy Father’s great wish that these people be set free”, a Vatican source told me.

Four of the hostages are Israelis and the Pope’s intervention follows high level discussions between Ariel Sharon’s government and the Vatican’s “foreign minister”, Mgr Jean-Luis Tauran. He has just been made a cardinal – making 135 Princes of the Church who are now eligible to vote for a new pope.

Among them is the Pope’s senior private secretary, Mgr Stanislaw Dziwisz – first to become a cardinal while still serving as the Pope’s closest aide.

Glint-eyed, with an imperious nose and a sharp tongue, who can rebuke equally well in Polish, Italian, French and German, Dziwisz is the only non-medical person to freely come and go from the Pope’s bedroom overlooking St Peter’s Square.

There is a nubuliser by the Pope’s bedside to assist John Paul’s breathing. Trolleys dot the room laden with other medical equipment. They are in striking contrast to the prie-dieu John Paul brought with him from Krakow, along with a striking portrait of the Madonna.

Both are the only visible links with his past. There are no discernible mementos, souvenirs or keepsakes. The Pope insists on maintaining, as far as possible, his daily schedule. He awakes at 5.30am. Two Papal Attendants help him to dress. Then they wheel him to the apartment’s private chapel.

The two blue-suited Vigili, members of the Vatican security force, bow as the Pope passes.

Vigili have always stood guard over John Paul, even in the Papal Apartment, since that fearful day in May 1981 when an attempt was made to assassinate him in St Peter’s Square.

The apartment staff, nuns and secretaries, are joined by the medical team for the early morning Mass.

Afterwards, the Pope has breakfast and begins his work schedule. In between there are periods of rest.

For a man so seriously ill, even a curtailed schedule must have an effect on his health. But he has continued to resist pleas from his doctors to slow down.

And before I depart, here is a good biography of John Paul II found on http://www.biography.com

"Pope John Paul II, leader of the Catholic Church. Born Karol Jozef Wojtyla, on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice (a small town about 35 miles southwest of Kraków), Poland, the second of two boys to parents Karol Sr., a tailor, and Emilia (née Kaczorowska), a schoolteacher. Following the sudden death of Pope John Paul I in 1978, Karol was elected as the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years. Throughout the last quarter of the twentieth century, he has resided in the Vatican in Rome, and has been known throughout the world as a pillar of moral conservatism for the Catholic Church.

Both his mother and his older brother, Edmund, died when Karol was young. He was raised by his father, a devout Catholic, who prompted his son to enter the priesthood. In his youth, Karol was passionately interested in theater, poetry, and religion. In 1938, he and his father moved from Wadowice to Kraków. Enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Karol’s education was interrupted when, in 1939, Poland was invaded by Nazi troops, and he was forced to continue his studies in an underground seminary.

In 1941, Karol’s father died, a turning point in his life. Karol applied himself to the Church with greater fervor than ever, and within five years, he was ordained a priest. He swiftly ascended in the church, studying theology and philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Angelicum in Rome, where he earned a Ph.D. in Divinity in 1948. He returned to Kraków, where he then served as archbishop. In 1967, he became a cardinal.

On September 28, 1978, just 33 days after his election, Pope John Paul died of an apparent heart attack. Surprising to everyone, the papacy was then passed on (by a conclave of secret voters) to Karol, the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years, who—in memory of John Paul I—chose to be called John Paul II.

On the issue of sexual morality, the pope has remained staunchly conservative, to the point that his positions have created considerable liberal adversaries within the Catholic Church, particularly in the United States. John Paul II unequivocally opposes pre- and extra-marital sex, homosexuality, abortion, and the use of contraception. In 1995, he dismissed a French bishop for advocating the use of condoms by those infected with the AIDS virus; and his refusal to allow women into the clergy is yet another major point of contention for many liberal Catholics.

Because of his position as the figurehead of the Catholic Church, the pope has often elicited extremist reactions. In particular, on May 13, 1981, before a crowd in Vatican Square, the pope survived an assassination attempt that left him seriously wounded. He eventually made a full recovery, and he even publicly forgave the man who shot and tried to kill him—a Turkish national named Mehmet Ali Agca—although Agca’s motives were never revealed.

Among the numerous accomplishments during his papacy, John Paul II has opened up discussions of interfaith between the Catholic Church and other religions. His desire to accurately reflect the growing diversity of Catholics worldwide has led to the unprecedented appointments of African-Americans to prominent positions in the Vatican. He is the most widely traveled pope in history, having visited over 116 countries on missions of goodwill, promoting human rights, and condemning the decline of spiritual values brought about by the rising materialism of the twentieth century. Among his travels, in 1998 he made a highly publicized visit to Cuba, during which he helped to negotiate the release of 300 political prisoners.

On March 20, 2000, the frail but determined John Paul II embarked on a much-anticipated pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While touring some of the most sacred areas of the Middle East—including the mountain where Moses is supposed to have died, as well as from the heights of Mt. Nebo (where, according to the Old Testament, God revealed to Moses the Promised Land that lay across the Jordan River)—the Pope extended a message to the Middle East to end centuries of violence. The Jordan’s King Abdullah II hailed the pope’s visit to the area as a “unique and emotional moment that brings closer the meaning of tolerance and coexistence from a distant land of dreams.”

Included in his ambitious six-day tour were a visit to Bethlehem, Mass at Galilee—the site of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount—and the first official papal visit to Israel. He spoke at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, telling a crowd that included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, “I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people who—stripped of everything, especially of human dignity—were murdered in the Holocaust.” In his speech, he did not remark upon the inaction of the Roman Catholic Church or Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust—for which, in 1998, the Vatican had already formally apologized. Overall, the visit remained a stirring culmination of the pope’s groundbreaking efforts during his 22-year papacy to reconcile the divergences between Jews and Christians.

In addition to his lifelong devotion to the study of theology, John Paul II is proficient in Italian, English, Spanish, French, German, Latin, and his native Polish. He is the author of numerous best selling works, including Pilgrimage of Peace (1980), A Year with Mary (1986), and The Jeweler’s Shop (1992).

When not touring, he holds his daily morning service in St. Peter’s Square, and continues his devotion to spreading the word—the “single truth,” as he refers to it—of God. Once a vigorous and athletic man, the elderly pope now suffers from Parkinson’s disease, a condition that slurs his speech and causes him to shake uncontrollably. He walks with a shuffling limp and often has to be escorted or even pushed in a cart; and it is rumored that in recent years, he has been fighting cancer. In spite of his physical concerns, however—particularly those concerning his retirement—John Paul II maintains a tenacious grip on the papacy and continues to believe in the divine importance of his role as the arbiter of Christian faith and the uncompromising voice of God."

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