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At church on Sunday the congregation was asked to pray for the recovery of the Pope. I have abstained from doing so. I hope that he will not recover. The seizure brought on by his dramatic trip to the hospital a week ago suggests the international sense of his indispensability. Pope John Paul is a graphic figure in the lives of Catholics and many non-Catholics. He is of course a towering theological figure who has presided over the development of Catholic thought and practice for the 26 years of his papacy. He is a major historical figure, who began as...

The following an excerpt from the article attributed solely to Pope John Paul II: [The article is titled: What Catholics Should Do About Democracy -- Zenit ZE04101602] Citing his encyclical "Centesimus Annus," the Pope noted that the Church values the democratic system in that it ensures all citizens can participate in the governing process. But an authentic democracy is present only when there is a correct conception of the human person, the 1991 document said. A current threat to this authentic democracy is the tendency to relativism, added the Pontiff. This relativism can lead to the error of thinking that...

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) -- Pope John Paul II denounced the "imbalance" between the world's rich and poor Sunday and applauded efforts to eliminate hunger, like the recent U.N. initiative to increase funds for development. The 84-year-old pontiff had to stop for breath every few words as he spoke to a few hundred pilgrims and tourists in his last Sunday appearance this season at his summer palace in the hill town of Castel Gandolfo. John Paul has Parkinson's disease, making it difficult for him to walk and to pronounce his words. The pontiff said Sunday's Gospel passage about Lazarus, an...

The parents of a brain-damaged woman at the center of a right-to-die case said Tuesday that recent statements by Pope John Paul II are proof that their daughter would choose to live in her current condition. Based on the pope's stated position that people in vegetative states still have the right to nutrition and health care, a lawyer for Bob and Mary Schindler filed a court motion asking a Clearwater judge to end efforts by Terri Schiavo's husband to end her life.

President Bush will award Pope John Paul the Presidential Medal of Freedom Friday, the highest U.S. civilian award, a U.S. official said Thursday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pontiff was being honored for "years of fighting for freedom and for his important moral voice."

St. Peter's Square and Basilica are framed by a statue on the Colonnade at dusk during Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II's 25th anniversary Mass at the Vatican (news - web sites), Thursday, Oct. 16, 2003. Tens of thousands of pilgrims streamed into St. Peter's Square for the Mass at 6.pm. - about the same time a quarter-century ago that white smoke from a Vatican chimney alerted the world that a Polish cardinal named Karol Wojtyla had been elected the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. (AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti) Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II...

German Cardinal Says Pope 'In a Very Bad Way' Tue September 30, 2003 08:23 AM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German head of the Vatican body which oversees doctrinal matters, was quoted on Tuesday as saying Pope John Paul was in very poor health and the faithful should pray for him. "He is in a very bad way," Ratzinger told Germany's Bunte magazine in an interview. "We should pray for the pope." Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the magazine that the 83-year-old pope had taken on too much, but...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch floating abortion clinic was due to dock in Poland on Friday to offer onboard abortions in a challenge to the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country's strict laws. The Women on Waves Foundation, which offers abortions in international waters to women in countries where they are illegal or more restricted than in the Netherlands, said the ship would dock at Wladyslawowo. It was sure to face protests in a country where the Polish Pope John Paul, head of the world's billion Catholics and staunchly opposed to contraception, abortion and divorce, is a local hero. "This is pure...

<p>Reuters Tuesday, March 18, 2003; 7:14 AM VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Tuesday countries that decide to wage war on Iraq without a global consensus must take responsibility before God and history -- making clear the Pope would not endorse their actions. "Those who decide that all peaceful means that international law makes available are exhausted assume a grave responsibility before God, their conscience and history," said Vatican spokesman Joaquin...</p>

Pope to send envoy to Baghdad to try to ease Iraq crisis 02/09/2003 Associated Press VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II will dispatch an envoy to Iraq in a plea for peace and to encourage Baghdad to cooperate with the United Nations, the Vatican said Sunday. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, emeritus president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, will leave for Baghdad on Monday with a counselor, Monsignor Franco Coppola. The mission will seek to "show to all the plea of the Holy Father in favor of peace and to help the Iraqi authorities to make a...

Posted on Thu, Mar. 21, 2002 Pope speaks out about sex abuse scandalsBy VICTOR L. SIMPSON Associated Press Writer VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II on Thursday broke his silence on the sex abuse cases rocking the Roman Catholic Church, saying the "grave scandal" was casting a "dark shadow of suspicion" over all priests. In an annual message to priests worldwide, the pope said "as priests we are personally and profoundly afflicted by the sins of some of our brothers who have betrayed the grace of ordination." He said they had succumbed "to the most grievous forms" of...