Friday, 12:45 PM
Pope on the verge of death
News reports state that there is really no hope for the Pope to recover. He is now unconscious with renal and heart failure, slowed breathing and dropping blood pressure. It looks like he will not make it much longer.
May God bless him and allow him enter eternal life without suffering and may his death be as much a witness as his life has been. Bless our Holy Father, O Lord!
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Friday, 7:00 AM
Pope in critical condition after heart failure
Vatican, Apr. 01 (CWNews.com) – Pope John Paul II (bio – news) suffered heart failure on Thursday while under treatment for a urinary infection which caused a high fever. On April 1 his condition had been stabilized, and papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that the Holy Father was “lucid, fully conscious, and extraordinarily serene,” but conceded that his condition is “very grave.”
The Pope met with several top Vatican aides– including the Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano (bio – news), and the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (bio – news)– on Friday morning. He also also received the Viaticum, and Mass was celebrated in his room in the apostolic palace. Aides reported that the Pontiff had asked them to read to him from the Gospel, about Christ’s final Passion, and followed the reading with keen interest.
Pope John Paul received the Anointing of the Sick on Thursday, and roads to the Vatican were closed, as the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray for the Holy Father. Doctors observe that heart failure– as distinct from a heart attack– is usually a system of an irreparable physical breakdown.
The BBC reports that Cardinals have been to arrive in Rome.