Fox News is reporting that an Italian news agency has said that the Pope’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. I don’t have any more information than that and am waiting for our Rome correspondent to notify us if there’s any real information. Until you can verify such things from two or more sources in Rome, I suggest you treat it as the rumor that it is.
That said, a few prayers for the Holy Father would not be out of order.
Update: CNN is reporting that he has received the last rites. Other sources say he’s had a urinary tract infection and is receiving antibiotics. Stay tuned.
Update 2: For those of you who are unaware, “last rites” does not necessarily mean death is imminent. It is more properly known as the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and it is done for anyone who is seriously ill, and an 84-year-old man with the Pope’s health problems certainly qualifies. In other words, it doesn’t tell us anything either way.
The latest reports I’ve heard, Dom, is that he has a urinary infection and being treated with appropriate antibiotics. He has a fever. They also report that his blood pressure has fallen.
See Yahoo! News:
Pope Has High Fever From Urinary Infection
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050331/ap_on_re_eu/pope
“The Holy Father today was struck by a high-fever caused by a confirmed infection of the urinary tract,” spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told The Associated Press by telephone.
Not to pressure you, Dom, but any info you could provide would be greatly appreciated. CNN is reporting he was given “last rites.” Which, of course, could be a garbled reference to a simple annointing of the sick. Or it could be worse.
Thanks, and prayers will continue.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/31/pope1/index.html
My father died within about six weeks of when his Parkinson’s reached his throat. That is certainly where the Pope’s disease has progressed to so I’m not very hopeful, regardless of what else might be wrong.
Prayers, yes…but what to pray for? That God’s will be done, I suppose.
How about praying that he live? I’ve pretty well had my fill with “merciful” death today.
YMMV, of course.
Over Easter my father and I had separate intuitions from each other that we were amazed when we shared them with each other:
Wouldn’t it be absolutely poetic justice if the Holy Father dies with Terri, and he reaches out to her and says “Come on, let’s get outta here”?
Well, he’d probably say something more holy like “Let’s go see the Lord” or whatever.
JenB,
I had similar thoughts. In the last few days I also thought that Terri might die on Good Friday, or on Easter Sunday.
Then I thought “My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts”. So I stopped trying to second-guess the good Lord and instead just prayed that His will be done.
Pray for the Holy Father’s healing of his Soul, his Mind and His Body and for protection against serious harm and demonic attack. THis is what a try to pray for for my family every day.
It’s heartwrenching to see the Pope, seemingly struggling for breath. He looks like he’s in pain or in a state of panic.
I received an email today from a business, I think in Steubenville, that sells T-shirts. They sell a couple different styles with the picture of JPII in 1946, wearing the black cassock and the Ray-bans, hiking up a mountain. He looks SO COOL in that picture! Check it out at http://www.catholicposters.com/e-mail/link.php?el=1196
He IS cool – yesterday, today, and always!
“For those of you who are unaware, ‘last rites’ does not necessarily mean death is imminent.”
I was heartened to see FOX News make just this point in the news crawl this evening. At least there’s one network out there that (at least sometimes) does its homework before reporting.
The deacon at my church says that last rites means confession, communion and anointing of the sick all together. He docked my son on a test for this anyway…