NEWS STORY: Serene Pope in `Very Serious’ Condition, Receives Eucharist for the Dying

c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II, suffering from a urinary tract infection, septic shock and cardio-circulatory collapse, is in “very serious” condition and received the Holy Viaticum, the Eucharist administered to the dying, the Vatican said Friday (April 1). The pope is “fully conscious and very serene,” said an […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II, suffering from a urinary tract infection, septic shock and cardio-circulatory collapse, is in “very serious” condition and received the Holy Viaticum, the Eucharist administered to the dying, the Vatican said Friday (April 1).

The pope is “fully conscious and very serene,” said an emotional Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Vatican spokesman. The pope asked to have prayers and liturgy read to him and was able to receive visits from seven high-ranking prelates.


Navarro-Valls, who has a medical degree, said at a midday briefing that the pope’s blood pressure is unstable and his biological functions are volatile.

Reiterating information contained in an urgent medical bulletin he had issued in writing at 6:30 a.m. Friday (11:30 p.m. Thursday EDT), Navarro-Valls said that the condition of the 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff was “very serious” but that he was “conscious, lucid and serene” and had been able to concelebrate Mass a half hour earlier.

“This morning, the Holy Father’s condition of health is very serious,” the spokesman said early Friday. “In the afternoon of yesterday, March 31, as already announced, following an ascertained infection of the urinary tract, septic shock with cardio-circulatory collapse was established.”

Septic shock occurs when an overwhelming infection leads to low blood pressure and low blood flow. Vital organs, such as the brain, heart, kidneys, and liver may not function properly or may fail. It often leads to death.

Cardio-circulatory collapse is a sharp drop in blood pressure.

In an indication of the seriousness of the crisis, Navarro-Valls said that the Vatican Press Room, which normally stays open no later than 3 p.m., would remain open all night Friday.

Thousands of tourists and well-wishers began converging on St. Peter’s Square Thursday night, and some remained until dawn. Police barred traffic from Via della Conciliazione, the broad avenue leading from the Tiber River to the Vatican, and the crowd grew during the day in warm, spring weather.

Some came to pray for the pope while others, unaware of the medical crisis, joined a long line of visitors waiting to enter St. Peter’s Basilica. “I just wanted to see Rome and, really, the pope’s state of health was immaterial,” Mary Wintersgill of London said.


John Paul’s health has been declining since he came down with influenza in late January. His condition was complicated by Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological ailment from which he has suffered for at least 15 years.

Navarro-Valls announced Thursday night that the pope was suffering from a “high fever caused by a documented urinary tract infection” and was being treated with antibiotics.

The spokesman said that doctors managed a temporary stabilization of John Paul’s condition late Thursday, but “in the following hours it evolved negatively,” and at 7:17 p.m. he received the Holy Viaticum, the Eucharist administered to the dying.

Navarro-Valls said the pope was “informed of the gravity” of his condition and chose to remain in his apartment in the Apostolic Palace, which has equipment for “a complete and effective medical assistance.”

John Paul’s medical team consisted of his personal physician, Renato Buzzzonetti, two experts in reanimation, a cardiologist, an ear, nose and throat specialist and two nurses.

During the morning, John Paul asked to have the 14 stations of the Via Crucis _ the Good Friday liturgy of the Passion of Jesus, from his entry into Jerusalem through his trial, crucifixion and burial _ read to him, the spokesman said. He later asked to hear the Liturgy of the Third Hour and Scriptures.


The pope also received visits from Cardinals Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state; Camillo Ruini, the pope’s vicar for Rome, Edmund Szoka, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., who is president of the government of the Vatican city-state, and Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals. Archbishops Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican’s foreign minister, Leonardo Sandi, assistant secretary of state, and Paolo Sardi, the Vatican’s top diplomatic trouble-shooter, also visited.

If the pope dies, Vatican protocol would have Ruini make the announcement to the people of Rome.

MO/JM RNS END

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