Cardinal visits 'smiling' pope

2005-04-02 16:14

Rome - Pope John Paul II, lying in a large bed covered in white blankets at the centre of the room, smiled serenely and tried but failed to speak, Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda was quoted as saying on Saturday, recounting a brief meeting with the pope the day before.

The pope, who was lying propped up by pillows, opened his eyes and looked straight at the Italian cardinal when his private secretary announced his presence.

"I was captured by the beauty of this smiling look. He clearly wanted for me understand that he recognised me," Pompedda was quoted as saying in Saturday's La Repubblica.

"I realised that he wanted to greet me and that he was struggling to say even just a few words, but he was not able to," Pompedda said after the visit at midday on Friday.

Pompedda said he could not see any pain in the face of the pope, who suffered heart failure and septic shock on Thursday. The Vatican has said that the pope is close to death.

None of his usual wheeze

"He didn't show any signs of pain. Even though his breathing clearly shows suffering, it has none of the usual wheeze," Pompedda said, adding that two nurses were next to the 84-year-old pontiff administering his medication.

A nun and his private secretary, Archibishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, sat in armchairs facing the pope's bed, while his personal doctor, Renato Buzzonetti, remained outside, Pompedda told daily Il Giornale. Pompedda said the pope had several tubes and drips attached to him.

The 75-year-old said he knelt by the pope's bed, touched his arm, and "quietly told him what was in my heart".

"I said 'Holy Father, I am here to tell you of my affection. We are all praying for you'."

The pope received several cardinals on Friday after the Vatican announced that he had been given the last rites, a communion administered to those approaching death.

Pompedda told Il Giornale that he had not been invited to see the pope, but went to the Apostolic Palace for more information on the pope's condition and was invited by Dziwisz into the pope's room.

- AFP