Pope will not resign

2005-03-31 11:47

Vatican City - Pope John Paul II is not considering resignation despite his increasingly frail health, a leading Italian Vatican expert said on Thursday, a day after the Vatican said the pontiff has begun receiving nutrition through a feeding tube in his nose.

The comments by Vittorio Messori, a leading Catholic author who helped the pope write the 1994 best-selling book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, were published in a front-page article in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The pontiff's frailty has fuelled speculation about his possible resignation for years. On Wednesday, the Vatican acknowledged the pope's recovery from surgery last month has been "slow."

Messori said Thursday that John Paul, who has rejected the possibility of stepping down in the past, has not changed his mind.

Will not step down

"I must confess: In seeing that the situation appeared to be worsening in such a visible way, I have wondered whether John Paul II might consider reviewing his decision" not to resign, Messori wrote. But, he added, "John Paul II will not step down."

Papal resignation is extremely rare, but is allowed by church law. With speculation swirling, many officials have insisted the pope's grip on the church remains firm despite his ailments.

In a statement on Wednesday, papal spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul had been fitted with a nasogastric tube to "improve the calorie intake and favour an effective recovery of strength."

The statement was issued shortly after John Paul made a brief appearance at his studio window on Wednesday and tried unsuccessfully to speak to the crowds in St Peter's Square below for the second time in a week.

After managing just a rasp of his voice, he blessed well-wishers by making the sign of the cross with his hand and withdrew.

A nasogastric tube is common in people requiring supplemental nutrition. A plastic tube is threaded down the nose and throat and into the stomach, allowing liquid food to be fed directly to the stomach.

In a statement, Navarro-Valls said John Paul was continuing his "slow and progressive convalescence" from a tracheotomy on February 24. In that surgery, a tube was inserted in John Paul's throat to help him breathe.

He said John Paul spends "many hours" seated in an armchair, celebrates Mass in his private chapel and has work contacts with his aides "following directly the activities of the Holy See and the life of the church."

But he said John Paul's public audiences remain suspended.

The feeding tube was the latest in a series of interventions for the frail 84-year-old pope, who has battled Parkinson's disease for years as well as hip and knee ailments that have made it virtually impossible for him to sit or stand.

In addition to the tracheotomy, the pope has had an inflamed appendix and benign tumour on his colon removed, and underwent hip replacement surgery after falling in the bathroom in 1994. He was shot in the abdomen in 1981.

- AP