Xmas to get special beat

2005-12-13 21:32

Warsaw - A Polish Dominican monk has asked the Rome clinic that treated John Paul II to give him recordings of the late pope's heartbeat, which he hopes to play to ardent Catholics at Christmas midnight mass.

Brother Jan Gora was quoted by the Glos Wielkopolski daily as saying: "For years, our hearts beat for him. Today, we want to symbolically listen to his heart."

"We have taken the first steps" to obtaining recordings of the heartbeat of John Paul II, who died on April 2 in his private apartment at the Vatican, after being in hospital at the Gemelli Clinic, he said.

If Brother Gora gets the recording, the late Polish-born pope's heartbeat will be played back during the Agnus Dei at midnight mass in Lednica, in southwestern Poland.

Gemelli Clinic spokesperson Nicola Cerbino told Polish reporters in Rome that he was not sure the clinic even had such a recording.

He also said that the ultimate decision on whether to hand over any such recording, if it existed, would fall to the late pope's family.

- AFP