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Though
silent, frail pontiff speaks volumes to faithful.
His long decline has hastened
in recent months as Parkinson's disease forced the once-robust world
leader to rely on a wheelchair and surrender ever more speaking duties to
aides. Church leaders gathered to
celebrate John Paul's 25-year pontificate - and mull the succession - have
kept a nervous eye on the Pope's condition. He has squelched talk of
resignation, heightening concerns about the day-to-day running of the Nowhere has John Paul's
frailty been more dramatically evidenced than at yesterday's "Mass of
the Rings" for his 30 newly named cardinals. Moments before yesterday's
consecration of the bread and wine, aides lifted the 83-year-old pontiff
from his wheelchair and placed him on a kneeler before the majestic,
canopied altar inside St. Peter's Basilica. Unable to keep his head and
torso erect, he draped himself over the kneeler for all to see, as if to
say, "This is my body." Yesterday was the first time
as Pope that he did not speak the words of consecration aloud, according
to The Mass, during which he
presented a special ring to Cardinal Justin Rigali of John Paul's aides returned
him to his chair after the consecration, then lifted him again to the
kneeler, or prie dieu, for
Communion, which he took by hand from a priest. Archbishop Leonardo Sandri,
the "The time for speeches
is over," Tadeusz Styczen, a longtime friend of John Paul's and
rector of "Now we must listen to
the silence of the Pope. He speaks to us fully in those silences. Eloquent
silences." Although distressing, John
Paul's increasingly silent public appearances have been meaningful to many
who have watched him here this week. "He's a soul dragging a
physical body," Msgr. George Mazzotta, pastor of St. Madeline's
parish in Ridley Park, said Sunday after seeing the Pope sit motionless
for much of Mother Teresa's beatification. "He must be in a kind of
mystical union with God," said Mary Ellen Christ, 55, of Warminster,
who also saw him there. "He's incredible,"
said her traveling companion, Pat Higgins, also of Warminster. "You
keep thinking he's going to collapse, and yet you sense he's manifesting
God's strength in his weakness." To the many cardinals
gathered here, John Paul's decline has been a troubling backdrop to this
week's festivities. "What we've seen, I
think, is the pattern," Rigali said. That pattern, he said, is to
have Ratzinger, Sandri and other key aides "assisting the Pope just
as they have done this past week." Cardinals are forbidden from
speculating on papal successors, and the fact that the designee will
probably be one of the 135 current cardinal-electors has further inhibited
open discussion. Many of the prelates have
been meeting informally here and paying courtesy calls at one another's
social events. Some have made broad public comments as well, saying that
the next pontiff will probably be non-European, and probably be more open
than John Paul to power-sharing with bishops. With a record number of
cardinals, 195, the papal field is considered wide open. Among the names
commonly mentioned are Cardinals Francis Arinze of As the Pope labors on, he is
by no means completely passive in his public appearances. He uttered the consecration
and distributed Communion from his wheelchair during Sunday's
beatification Mass, and toured St. Peter's Square afterward in his "Popemobile." At yesterday's ring Mass,
John Paul put the rings on each of the 30 cardinals' right ring finger,
and grinned when one cardinal tugged playfully at one of the pontiff's
fingers. Afterward, he appeared at the
Paul VI audience hall adjacent to St. Peter's to greet those unable to
watch the ring Mass in the basilica. His longtime secretary, Archbishop
Stanislaw Dziwisz, spoke for him, however. The ring presentation was the
second part of the elaborate ceremony, or consistory, by which the
Catholic Church makes cardinals. On Tuesday in St. Peter's
Square, John Paul had presented the new cardinals with the distinctive
scarlet hats of their office, along with a parchment statement of their
appointment. The ring presentation, held inside the basilica because of
rain, completed the ceremony. After the Mass, Rigali
likened a cardinal's ring to a wedding band, telling reporters it was
"a natural sign of community, of unity, of oneness, of bond, to the
See of Peter," or papacy. All the cardinal's rings are
large, modernistic gold rectangles bearing a scene from the life of
Christ. Rigali's shows the Crucifixion. Asked yesterday if it would
be difficult to say goodbye to Pope John Paul when he returns to "We don't know what God
has in mind for him," Rigali added. "But he's giving us a
marvelous example of how to bear the infirmities of old age." Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
