Pope ready to die

SURROUNDED by senior Church leaders and experienced medical staff, Pope John Paul II last night lay in the bedroom of his Vatican apartment on the brink of death. The Pontiff’s breathing was shallow, his kidneys were failing to function and he is suffering heart failure.

Italian media gave contradictory reports about Pope John Paul’s vital signs, first saying his heart and brain activity had stopped and then reporting this was not true.

The Vatican issued a denial, saying the Pope was still alive. "It is not true that the Pope is dead and there is no truth that his electro-encephalogram is flat because there is no such machine in the papal apartments," a Vatican official said.

However, a statement released earlier admitted that the Pope’s condition, already "grave", had "further worsened".

"The general conditions and cardio-respiratory conditions of the Holy Father have further worsened," the Vatican said. "The clinical picture indicates cardiocirculatory and renal insufficiency. A gradual worsening of arterial hypertension has been noted and breathing has become shallow," said the communique issued by the papal spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

And in a solemn Mass held yesterday evening for the Pope at San Giovanni Laterano Cathedral in Rome Cadinal Ruini hinted that the Pope was near the end.

He said: "The Pope can already see and touch the Lord, he is already united with our one and only Saviour. John Paul II is tackling the most difficult part of his long and extraordinary life."

After a decade of ill-health and frequent hospital visits, the elderly Pontiff signalled his acceptance that the end was imminent by refusing to be re-admitted to the Gemelli clinic.

As thousands of pilgrims gathered outside the window in St Peter’s Square and began quietly praying, the 84-year-old, who suffered a heart attack on Thursday night as a result of a high fever brought on by a urinary tract infection, began his own prayerful preparations for death.

At an emotional press conference yesterday, Mr Navarro-Valls, who was on the verge of tears, explained that the Pope asked his aides to read him the Biblical passage describing the 14th and final stage of the Way of the Cross - the path that Christ took to his crucifixion. The passage describes how Christ’s body was taken down from the cross, wrapped in a linen shroud and placed in the tomb.

According to John Magee, Bishop of Cloyne in Ireland and the Pope’s former private secretary, the Pope’s behaviour indicated that he was preparing for death. "The fact that he has not gone back to hospital shows that he is serenely carrying the cross and ready to give up and to say, ‘It is finished’."

Polish Cardinal Andrzej Maria Deskur, a close friend, said: "He is fading serenely."

The Vatican, which has always strenuously spun the positive aspects of the Pope’s health, yesterday admitted that the pontiff’s condition was grave with unstable blood pressure and persistent breathing problems. On Thursday evening he had suffered septic shock and a heart attack and was given the last rites, also known as the sacrament of the sick. Although the Pope was described as lucid and was able to help celebrate Mass, his decision to receive his top aides was being read as farewell.

"The Pope is still lucid, fully conscious and extraordinarily serene," said Mr Navarro-Valls. He said, however, that the Pope remained "in a very serious condition" with unstable blood pressure. "He is fully conscious about the real gravity of the situation and he asked whether it was strictly necessary to go to the hospital. He has decided to remain." Shortly before he left the press conference in tears he said: "This is surely an image I have never seen in these 26 years."

Among the top aides who visited the Pope were the Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State; Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, under-secretary of state; Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the vicar for Rome; Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, his doctrinal chief; Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican foreign minister and Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the governor of Vatican City. According to Church sources this was to say "their farewells".

Last night Cardinal Ruini told the hundreds of pilgrims who packed a church in Rome that the Pope "already sees and touches Christ".

The Pope also appointed 17 new bishops and accepted the resignations of six other bishops early yesterday morning. The nominations and resignations included bishops in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, republics of the former Soviet Union and the Pacific. The large number of appointments and resignations, unusual for one day, was an indication that the Pope wanted to clear up unfinished business.

In a sign of solidarity towards the dying Pope, hundreds, then thousands of people began to gather in St Peter’s Square. Their eyes were fixed, not on the great basilica of St Peter’s, but on the side of the Vatican and upon a small third-floor window.

Tourists and pilgrims began arriving at St Peter’s late on Thursday night as news of the Pope’s worsening condition made headlines. Some knelt on the cobblestones to pray while others wrapped blankets around themselves to ward off the chill. "You see video of him when he became Pope, he was so alive, so excited to be here. Now to see him break down is just really sad," said Tripp McLaughlin, a 20-year-old American student on holiday in Rome. "It would be a blessing if he passed on."

Among those making a pilgrimage to the square yesterday morning was Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, who said he had come "to pray here in the piazza as a sign of sharing in the grief of our brothers for their concerns and as a sign of warmth for this Pope and for all that he has done".

In a sign of respect for the Pope’s deteriorating health, political parties cancelled a series of rallies originally planned in Rome ahead of regional elections tomorrow and Monday. The invitation to suspend the rallies came both from the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and opposition leader Romano Prodi. Mr Berlusconi also said yesterday he was cancelling all his public commitments for the day.

The government and the police authorities in Rome held emergency planning meetings in preparation for the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who are expected to arrive within the next few days.