‘The fourth-ranking cardinal in the Vatican and the African with the best chance of succeeding Pope John Paul II began his stellar church career as a child of poor pagan parents in a mud-brick bungalow in the forests of southern Nigeria.
As the current pope clings to life in a Roman hospital, Cardinal Francis Arinze, the […]
‘n 26 years of globe-trotting, Pope John Paul II has covered a distance roughly equivalent to three trips to the moon. Yet a longed-for visit to Russia has never come off - and there are doubts that it ever will.
In what could be the twilight of his papacy, a trip to close a centuries-old rift […]
‘Durban Archbishop Wilfred Napier, 63, is among those rated to succeed Pope John Paul II.
As the pontiff recovers in a hospital here from surgery, Irish bookmakers Paddy Power have begun taking bets on the identity of his successor.
The company has made 70-year-old Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, the Archbishop of Milan, its firm favourite.
Tettamanzi, at 5-2, is […]
‘POPE John Paul’s ability to speak in public, including his famous orations in St Peter’s Square, will be seriously curtailed by his recent ill-health, experts have said.
Surgeons performed a tracheotomy on the 84-year-old pontiff on Thursday night to assist his breathing.
It is now believed the effects of this operation could be permanent, making it much […]
‘Pope John Paul has spent a lifetime savouring the spoken word: as a young amateur actor, as a linguist with command of a dozen languages, and as pontiff, preaching in far-flung churches, airfields and stadiums. Now he is keeping silent on doctors’ orders.
A tracheotomy to ease a breathing problem has stilled his voice. For the […]
‘A crippled 4-year-old Iraqi girl and Pope John Paul are both praying for a miracle of healing, floors apart at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
“As we are both in the same hospital, I hope that we both realise our dreams,” said Diar, partially paralysed by a bomb blast in the Iraqi city of Nassiriya last year.
Speaking through […]
‘Pope John Paul II has surprised worshippers by appearing at his hospital window as the Sunday blessing was read for him.
Appearing in a wheelchair, the Pope did not speak but performed the Sunday Angelus blessing from the Rome hospital where he is staying.
It was just a brief appearance but will raise hopes the Pontiff is […]
‘THE POPE is being urged by senior church figures to cut back further on his already diminished workload as realisation grows in the Vatican that he is too old and frail to make a full recovery.
Vatican officials said yesterday that John Paul II, who is 84, would not be well enough to read out today’s […]
‘Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II made a surprise appearance from a hospital window Sunday, waving to the faithful just after a top Vatican (news - web sites) official on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica read a statement from the pontiff asking for prayers.
The 84-year-old pope was wheeled to a hospital window […]
‘For the first time in his 26-year papacy, Pope John Paul II will not lead the Sunday blessing known as ”the Angelus” today, Vatican officials said, because doctors have advised that he should not speak while recovering from surgery to assist his breathing.
His silence marks a profound moment in his papacy, Vatican officials and Catholic […]
‘ Cardinal George Pell, head of the Catholic Church in Australia, said Sunday that Pope John Paul II should remain as head of the church as long as he could communicate, despite being “gravely sickâ€?.
Pell, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, said the 84-year-old pontiff should continue to lead the church even if he could only […]
‘The pope’s wavering health weighed on the thoughts of people of many faiths in the city Friday, such as a concerned Margaret Ingrassia of Brooklyn.
Like countless devout New Yorkers, the 72-year-old Catholic visited her house of worship to say a prayer for Pope John Paul II.
And she emerged from St. Patrick’s Church in Bay Ridge […]
‘N 1981, three years into his papacy, Pope John Paul II was looking death in the eye. A would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, had shot him through the stomach in St. Peter’s Square.
Last week, clearly much nearer the end of that extraordinary papacy, John Paul was in the hospital again, suffering a relapse of flu-like […]
There have been blind popes and popes so sick they died within days of their coronation. And now there is a virtual pope, one who today will participate only symbolically in a cherished ritual of Roman Catholicism.
For the last two years, Pope John Paul II has been unable to walk or move easily. After […]