Vatican: Pope near death, but responds to aides

Several cardinals from the United States and Latin America said they were heading to Rome. After the official mourning period following the death of a pope, cardinals hold a secret vote in the Sistine Chapel to choose a successor.

The Il Secolo XIX newspaper of Genoa reported that the pope, with the help of his private secretary Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, wrote a note to his aides urging them not to weep for him.

“I am happy, and you should be as well,” the note reportedly said. “Let us pray together with joy.”

However, Navarro-Valls said he couldn’t confirm the report, even after speaking to the pope’s secretary.

Picture of suffering
As word of his deteriorating condition spread across the globe, special Masses celebrated the pope for transforming the Roman Catholic Church during his 26-year papacy and for his example in fearlessly confronting death.

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Hospitalized twice last month after breathing crises, and fitted with a breathing tube and a feeding tube, John Paul has become a picture of suffering.

His papacy has been marked by its call to value the aged and to respect the sick, subjects the pope has turned to as he battles Parkinson’s disease and crippling knee and hip ailments. The pope also survived a 1981 assassination attempt, when a Turkish gunman shot him in the abdomen.

In Washington, the White House said President Bush and his wife were praying for the pope and that the world’s concern was “a testimony to his greatness.”

Sharp decline
John Paul is suffering from septic shock and heart problems brought on by the urinary tract infection, the Vatican said.

Septic shock involves both bacteria in the blood and a consequent over-relaxing of the blood vessels. The vessels, which are normally narrow and taut, get floppy in reaction to the bacteria and can’t sustain any pressure. That loss of blood pressure is catastrophic, making the heart work hard to compensate for the collapse.

Dr. Gianni Angelini, a professor of cardiac surgery at Bristol University in England, said the chances of an elderly person in John Paul’s condition surviving septic shock more than 48 hours was no more than 20 percent, “but that would be in an intensive care unit with very aggressive treatment.”

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