Fono spotted an article from Germany’s Welt am Sonntag paper about the Pope’s health.
As you’ve probably noticed, Pope John Paul’s voice has become progressively more incomprehensible in his public speeches, and according to the article, he now regularly skips whole paragraphs of his Wednesday general audience talks.
This becomes a practical problem for the Church when there are some tasks only a Pope can fulfill: e.g., to declare one of the faithful departed a saint or a blessed, as he plans to do for Mother Teresa on October 19. For the Pope, giving up his trip to Mongolia, and the wished-for side trip to Russia means that he will probably never fulfill his dream of consecrating Russia to our Lady from its own soil.
Andreas Englisch writes:
John Paul II sees his fate head-on. He openly indicates that he believes he does not have long to live. He declines to name the overdue replacements for the two most important Vatican offices: both Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano and the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, have surpassed the age limit of 75 years and would normally have to go into retirement. Yet John Paul II does not want to fill such important offices himself. He wants to leave the choice of successors to the next Pope, who will have to work closely together with the cardinals in both key positions.
Pretty sobering post, R.C. The pope cut back on his Parkinson’s medication while at Castel Gandolfo, so maybe it’s just that he’s taking a while to get his regimen back up. He was looking and sounding pretty good there for a while earlier this year. He’s just got to get to Russia, after all he has done for the fall of Communism and his great devotion to the Blessed Mother.
On a related note, I’d like to see Ratzinger and Sodano remain on board through a transition if it should come to pass. It would be easier on all of us, I think.