More on the Pope

From Newsday.com - Pope Names Cardinals Despite Failing Health:



"Access to the pope has been curtailed in recent months, with meetings cut to three or four minutes to conserve his strength, said Pecklers. And his longtime secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, is said to be signing more of the papers crossing his desk, he said.



Dziwisz (pronounced DJEE-vish) was ordained a priest by John Paul and worked for him in Krakow before he was elected pope. Dziwisz is widely viewed as the gatekeeper and, increasingly, the proxy for John Paul. Dziwisz 'is the single, most important figure in this pontificate in the last few years since the pope's health has declined,' said the Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian and historian at Notre Dame.



Concerns about the pope have been reinforced by reported episodes of possible mental deterioration.



A Vatican source who asked not to be named said that when the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, met the pope this month, Williams was told not to expect any meaningful conversation because of the pope's difficulty conversing. One person present said he heard the pope ask an aide, 'Where is he from?' as Williams departed. He said the aide replied, 'England.'



Yet Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., insisted that when he saw the pope at an audience last week, John Paul 'spoke in seven or eight different languages and . . . he prayed and he waved to the people. Everything he wanted to say, he said.'



Some speculate that the moments in which the pope seems disconnected or disoriented may be suggestive of a man who may become confused when he is tired or when his medications are not working properly - a problem that would not be unusual for a man of 83 who still pushes himself tremendously and who has suffered from Parkinson's disease for years.



Still, there is a sense that a step in the pope's decline may have occurred before people's eyes this week. "Prior to this week, when you asked cardinals about what happens if the pope becomes unable to function, they'd say, 'We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,'" said John Allen, author of "Conclave," a book about papal succession.



"I think for the first time there's a sense that we may be at that bridge."

Required Reading

Amy makes an excellent suggestion that The Power of the Powerless should be required reading for all:

From the Front Lines in the Battle for Life

Pete Vere reports from Florida about the fight for Terri Schiavo.



From :



"Not too long after the ambulance took off with Terri in order to bring her to the hospital, I happened to find myself with Terri's father. So I gave him the rosaries blessed by the Holy Father. Terri's father was in tears, and asked me to extend the gratitude of his family toward St. Blog, FreeRepublic and the Alhambra. He also asked me to make known his gratitude to St. Therese and Bl. Teresa of Calcutta. Since beginning the Novena to St. Therese, he has encountered roses and rose petals everywhere he goes, even in the most unusual of places. In fact, Terri's feeding tube was pulled on the feast day of her namesake, St. Therese, and the critical point in Terri's starvation and dehydration would have taken place last Sunday -- the day the Holy Father beatified Mother Teresa of Calcutta."

Day of Victory in the Battle for Life!

Yesterday was a day of victory in the great battle to defend life. In Florida the legislature overcame the horrible decisions that the judges have made in the Terri Schiavo case. At the same time the US Senate voted to ban partial birth abortions. In years of defeat, one after another, let us take a moment to thank God for these victories and that they may pave the way for turn away from the culture of death.

North American Sems Vow to Stem the Tide

From Newsday.com - Answering an Uncommon Call:



"They refer to themselves as 'John Paul's Men.' And like their 83-year-old hero, they are fervent about their faith and self-confidently orthodox in ways that distinguish them from an earlier generation of seminarians weaned on Vietnam War-era protests and the women's movement.



'I look out my window at St. Peter's every day and I think about John Paul's resiliency and his tireless efforts to bring the gospel to all,' said Robert Keighron, 22, of Ozone Park, a second-year seminarian at the 144-year-old Pontifical North American College in Rome. 'No one is excluded by this pope. No one. And that zeal is what I am attracted to.'



Keighron and many of his 155 brethren at this American seminary in Rome are typical of a new, more conservative generation of seminarians who were born after John Paul's election and came of age during his 25-year pontificate. In a sharp break with the more rebellious attitudes that characterized their predecessors, many emulate John Paul's personal piety as well as his orthodoxy on matters ranging from mandatory priestly celibacy, to birth control and divorce, to his vision of priests as shepherds leading their flock. And they say their intention is nothing less than to carry on the pope's legacy long after he is gone."

Pope Closes Out Month of Celebrations

May travel to Austria, Switzerland, France and Poland next year? That's what Cardinal Meisner is saying. But once again the pope struggled to get through this Mass.



From CNN.com - Pope may return to Poland in 2004 - Oct. 22, 2003

Terri Given Second Chance! Bill Passes Florida Senate

From Lawmakers give governor power to order feeding tube for Schiavo:



" Lawmakers voted Tuesday to give Gov. Jeb Bush the power to order a feeding tube be reinserted into a brain-damaged woman in defiance of courts and her husband.



Bush said he will immediately sign the bill and order the tube to be reinserted into Terri Schiavo, the subject of one of the nation's longest and most bitter legal battles over care for a disabled person.



Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, want her to live. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she would rather die.



With a living will form on every desk, the Senate voted 23-15 for the legislation (HB 35E). The House, which had passed a similar version Monday night, passed the final version 73-24 minutes later. "