Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II may have to return to the hospital to have a feeding tube inserted, an Italian news agency reported today. It stressed that no decision had been made.
The APcom news agency, citing an unidentified source, said the 84-year-old pope might have to have the tube inserted to improve his nutrition since he is having difficulty swallowing with the breathing tube that was inserted Feb. 24.
Talk about timing.
All my prayers are with the pope… but this will be interesting.
Can you link to the article please?
Houston Chronicle, today:
If he’s gotta have one he can be glad he’s not here in the good old US of A.
… and for that vow of celibacy.
I wonder if the pope is afraid of dying. He’s so obviously frail and physically falling apart, I wonder why he doesn’t just allow himself to go.
According to him, he will immediately go to heaven to be with Jesus and new pope will be elected in short order, so I don’t know why he doesn’t just stop hanging on. Unless, of course, it has something to do with ego, which I don’t entirely doubt.
Actually, cran, just being the Pope does not guarantee you salvation. I would hope that the Pope would be the first person to admit to that, since it’s one of the basic premises of the Catholic faith.
I don’t know really if he’s TRYING to stay alive really. It may just not be his time.
excuse this, i’m basically ignorant of Catholicism, now i’m wondering… who hears the Pope’s confession? who will administer Last Rites? is any ordained Roman Catholic priest qualified to do this?
I would assume that any priest in the Vatican (or really anywhere…it would just be easier I suppose for someone right there to hear it) hears his confessions, and will administer Last Rites. Any Catholic priest is capable of hearing any person’s confession, despite his office. So a parish priest from Peoria could conceivably hear the Pope’s confessions as well as administer Last Rites. But he does have a confessor that hears his confessions on a weekly basis, from what I understand. I’m not sure if that same priest will also end up administering Last Rites.
It’s not “Last Rites” anymore, it’s “Annointing of the Sick”. And you don’t need to be “dying” to receive this sacrament, you just need to have the spiritual help that the sacrament will offer. You can also receive this sacrament numerous times.
This was another of the changes of Vatican II.
Missy
All those rituals are so silly, in my view. I’m sure God doesn’t care if you were blessed by a pope before you died or delivered any last rites. I’m sure that God cares about what is in your heart and your relationship with him and little or nothing else.
I just cannot fathom a God that says, “You’re going to Hell/Purgatory because you didn’t go through the proper rituals before you died”.
I think it is a shame that this old man, coming to the end of his days, is still being paraded in public when he is so obviously in such bad health.
I know that a new Pope can’t be elected until this one dies but where is the harm in letting him see out his days with dignity and privacy.
His being allowed to retire,in a manner of speaking, is not going to bring about any harm to the Catholic Church.
Slan,
D.
Not surprisingly, I agree.
He’s been asked this question–why doesn’t he retire?
He’s staying voluntarily; nobody’s ‘parading him.’
His answer sums up a good deal of what he’s about:
‘Did Christ come down from the Cross?’
This is a great man.
Prepare yourselves for more bad manners… all TV networks have 24 hour live cams pointed at several places in the Vatican, and full-time crews waiting for the old man to croak, in order to give us instant live coverage…
As to why he doesn’t just retire (i.e.: step down), my understanding is that he feels he was put there by God, and it’s not over until it’s over.
(Edit: looks like Jim and i were posting at the same time.)
If he feels he was put there by God, that most certainly is an ego problem!!! 
Not at all!
'Human life is meaningful even in its extremes.
In pain, in age, in disability, in handicap,
in Alzheimers, in utero it has great worth.
The most significant human life died
in agony nailed to a cross, and that life
acquired its greatest meaning as it
died in torment. ’
This is what he’s believed all his life,
and now he’s living it, deliberately.
He is making a statement, one he
believes with all his heart.