c. 2005 Religion News Service
Experts Urge Minor Surgery to Implant Feeding Tube in Pope’s Stomach
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Medical experts recommended Thursday (March 31) that Pope John Paul II, who has reportedly lost more than 40 pounds, undergo minor surgery to implant a permanent feeding tube in his stomach because of his increasing inability to swallow.
Gastroenterologists and neurologists agreed that the plastic tube inserted through John Paul’s nose on Wednesday to carry liquid nourishment down his throat and esophagus to his stomach should be only a temporary measure.
“Generally, the nasogastric tube is used for a couple of weeks at most, perhaps less. In the case in which the patient needs aid for nutrition for longer, a PEG, the percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, is used,” Francesco Pallone, professor of gastroenterology at Rome’s Third University, told the newspaper Il Messaggero.
Doctors said that the PEG, implanted under a local anesthetic, involves making an incision in the abdominal wall to insert a tube into the stomach. Surgeons are guided by an endoscope, which visualizes the stomach interior.
A PEG is the device at the center of the controversy over Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman. The tube kept her alive for 12 years, and when it was ordered removed two weeks ago to allow her to die, her family appealed to the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court to reverse the decision.
The inability to swallow was the latest in a series of health crises to hit the pope. He was hospitalized twice in February with severe breathing problems triggered by influenza and aggravated by Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological condition also blamed for his difficulty in swallowing.
Quoting “well informed Vatican sources,” Agence France Press said Thursday that John Paul had “lost almost 19 kilograms (41.8 pounds) since Feb. 24 when surgeons inserted a breathing tube that still remains in his throat.
“It was for this reason that a nasal tube was applied on Wednesday,” the source said.
The pope’s medical team reportedly gave him nourishment at times through a drip and also inserted a nasal tube earlier for a brief period.
Doctors said that a stomach tube would avoid the risks of infection from intravenous feeding and sores on the wall of the esophagus caused by a nasogastric tube.
They acknowledged that it would be a major commitment to end-of-life care but indicated that John Paul had little choice because there is no way at present to turn back the damage done by Parkinson’s disease.
Giuseppe Nappi, president of the Italian League Against Parkinson’s, called the disease “unarrestable and irreversible.”
“I fear that, in the case of the pope, there will be no return to alimentation by natural means,” Giorgio Verme, retired chief of gastroenterology at Turin’s Le Molinette Hospital, told the newspaper La Stampa.
_ Peggy Polk
Non-Orthodox Converts Gain Status in Israel
JERUSALEM (RNS) In a landmark decision, Israel’s High Court has recognized non-Orthodox converts to Judaism who meet certain requirements.
The high court ruled Thursday (March 31) that non-Orthodox converts to Judaism who studied toward their conversion in Israel but who underwent the actual conversion procedure abroad are nonetheless entitled to Israeli citizenship.
The legal decision comes in response to a Conservative movement petition to the High Court in 1999 seeking recognition for several of its converts who studied Judaism in Israel for at least a year but who immersed themselves in a mikva _a ritual bath _ overseas.
The converts’ decision to undergo their actual conversions abroad stemmed from an earlier court ruling recognizing Reform and Conservative conversions performed overseas for the purposes of citizenship.
In a statement to the press just after the ruling, Israel’s Masorti movement, the Israeli wing of the Conservative movement, hailed the ruling as “yet another step forward in the full recognition of non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel.”
Should the High Court eventually recognize Reform and Conservative conversions done in Israel, it would be a severe blow to the Orthodox establishment, which has sole authority over Jewish religious services such as conversion, marriage and divorce.
The ruling was condemned by many Orthodox leaders, both in Israel and elsewhere.
“The decision of the court may eventually lead to the division of the people of Israel into two camps,” said Stephen Savitsky, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations in America, based in New York City. “There will be a group of halachically valid Jews and a group of Jews who are Jewish only by the ruling of the Supreme Court. The consequences of this ruling will be tragic.”
_ Michele Chabin
Projection: Muslim Population in Canada Will Dramatically Increase
MONTREAL (RNS) Canada may be in for “a dramatic shift” in its religious composition over the next dozen years, with the number of Muslims expected to skyrocket.
By the time it reaches its 150th birthday in 2017, Canada will see its Muslim population increase by 160 percent and the number of Hindus rise by 90 percent, according to projections released Wednesday (March 30) by the Association for Canadian Studies.
Analyzing projections based on the 2001 Canadian census, the association noted that by 2017, the number of Muslims in the country will jump from the current 600,000 to 1.42 million, while Hindus will nearly double from 300,000 to 583,000.
The number of Sikhs in Canada will also increase dramatically, from 300,000 to nearly 500,000 _ a 70 percent rise. As well, Buddhists are expected to see their numbers bolstered, from 300,000 to 414,000, an increase of 38 percent.
The numbers forecast a modest 10 percent increase in Canada’s long-established Jewish community, to 375,000. Once comprising the largest number of non-Christians in the country, Jews were surpassed in numbers by Muslims over a decade ago.
The study did not forecast growth rates among Christian denominations.
Non-Judeo-Christian groups will be concentrated in Canada’s largest cities, the forecasts indicate.
In the greater Toronto area, roughly one in six residents will be Muslim or Hindu, with the two groups surpassing the 1 million mark.
The projections suggest that in Montreal by 2017, there will be more Muslims than all other non-Christian denominations combined.
Enrollment figures released last week by Quebec’s education ministry indicate that by 2006, Arabic will be the most common mother tongue in francophone schools, after French.
In Ottawa, the number of Muslims is expected to jump from 40,000 to nearly 100,000.
“We’re in for a very different society,” association executive director Jack Jedwab said in an interview. “We’re seeing a fundamental shift in our traditional vision of Canada as predominantly European, to a different type of mix.”
Changes in Canada’s religious landscape, he added, will have far-reaching implications in virtually every aspect of society, from schools to the workplace to foreign policy.
Jedwab cautioned against making judgments about the forecasts, even as hosts of French radio talk shows in Montreal joked that soon, everyone in the city will have to learn Arabic.
_ Ron Csillag
Episcopal Church `Honors All God’s Creatures’ With Pet Cemetery
(RNS) An Episcopal church in Staten Island, N.Y., plans to consecrate a cemetery for the pets of parishioners, clergy and bishops.
The Church of St. Andrew will hallow the land for its Cemetery for All God’s Creatures on April 8, offer prayers and bury several pets.
The Rev. Michael Delaney, St. Andrew’s rector, said having a pet burial ground will honor the role pets play in many families.
“We have been called `to be stewards of all God’s creation,”’ Delaney said.
New York Episcopal Bishops Catherine Roskam and Don Taylor will join Delaney for the service.
During the service, prayers will be offered, including some from the book “We Thank You God, for These: Blessings and Prayers for Family Pets” by the Rev. Rayner Hesse Jr., an Episcopal priest in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Among the pets whose ashes will be interred will be Gizmo, a cat that lived in the church, and Truth, dog of the late Bishop Walter Dennis of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.
The cemetery’s 850 burial plots will be located on the church’s grounds near its shrine of St. Francis, a 13th century Catholic monk who was known for his love of animals.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Quote of the Day: Boston Red Sox Pitcher Mike Timlin
(RNS) “I know that God is out there with me all the time. Win or lose, he’s still going to pat me on the back. My kids are still going to love me. That’s where I get to see God’s face most of the time, in my kids. I can give up the game-winning three-run home run and I can come off the field and I can be dejected and I can have a broken heart and feel like the worst guy in the world and they still run up to hug me. That’s what God does. He’s still going to run up and hug me no matter what.”
_ Boston Red Sox pitcher Mike Timlin, quoted in the March/April issue of New Man magazine, a Christian men’s magazine published by Strang Communications.
MO/PH END RNS
