News from the Holy See News from the Holy See
Christus Rex Information ServiceThe pope was reported to have celebrated mass in the chapel in his hospital apartments after being visited by attending physician Francesco Crucitti.
Surveillance is very tight around the pope's rooms, but at around 8 A.M. the blinds of one of is windows was opened and the pope's personal physician, Renato Buzzonetti, and personal secretary, Father Stanislao, could be seen.
The pope was admitted to the hospital last night. This is the sixth time he has been hospitalized here in the 18 years he has been pope.
VATICAN CITY, OCT 7, 1996 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Joaquin Navarro-Valls today stated: "I confirm that tomorrow morning, Tuesday October 8, the Holy Father John Paul II will undergo scheduled surgery, which will be performed by the medical team led by Prof. Francesco Crucitti, director of the Institute of Clinical Surgery of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic. This morning, after routine tests, the Holy Father concelebrated mass with his personal secretary, Msgr. Stanislaw Dziwisz."
Pope John Paul left the Vatican at 8:30 last evening, in the company of Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, for Gemelli Polyclinic. Among those awaiting the Pope at the hospital were President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro of Italy.
VATICAN CITY, OCT 7, 1996 (VIS) - Made public today was a communique on the 3rd meeting of the Pre-Synodal Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops for the Special Assembly for America, held in Rome from October 2 to 4.
Under the presidency of Cardinal Jan P. Schotte, C.I.C.M., Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, 5 cardinals, 11 archbishops and bishops and 4 members of the secretariat met. During the meetings, the participants received information on the activities in progress at the secretariat and talked about "the initial reactions, unanimously positive, to the publication of the 'Lineamenta'" and the "criteria for participation in the future Assembly."
"At the beginning of the last session, the morning of October 4, Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy spoke as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to give a broad report on the ecumenical implications of the upcoming Special Assembly for America."
POPE JOHN PAUL, IN A LETTER dated September 14 and made public today, named Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches, as his special envoy to the concluding celebrations for the 4th Centenary of the Union of Brest, scheduled for October 9-14 in Lviv, Ukraine. Msgrs. Djura Dzudzar and Maurizio Malvestiti, officials of the congregation, are also members of the pontifical mission.
CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER, PREFECT OF THE CONGREGATION for the Doctrine of the Faith and president of the International Theological Commission, celebrated Mass on Friday, October 4, feast of St. Francis, in memory of Fr. Max Thurian, of the commission and a collaborator of the congregation who died August 15.
VATICAN CITY, OCT 7, 1996 (VIS) - The Holy Father, acceding to the desire expressed by Archbishop Pasquale Macchi to be able to dedicate himself to promoting the memory of deceased Pope Paul VI, has accepted his resignation from the office of pontifical delegate for the Shrine of Loreto and of Prelate of Loreto. The Pope has nominated Archbishop Macchi, prelate emeritus of Loreto, as member of the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
As the Vatican confirmed that the operation would take place on Tuesday, hospital sources said examinations included blood and urine tests, an electrocardiogram, an echo-doppler to determine the quality of blood flow and a chest X-ray.
Asked if this was normal before an operation, one senior hospital source said: "It is routine for a person who is 76, especially when you have a 76-year-old who is a VIP."
Professor Francesco Crucitti, who will lead the surgical team, said the Polish-born Pope was well and had spent a restful night at the Gemelli, where besieging media from around the world recorded his arrival late on Sunday.
Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin-Navarro Valls said the Pope had celebrated morning mass in the chapel of his heavily-guarded 10th floor suite at the Gemelli with his personal secretary after what a statement said were "routine examinations."
He confirmed that surgery would take place "tomorrow morning, Tuesday October 8" under Crucitti, who has carried out three previous abdominal operations on the Pope since 1981.
A spokesman for the Gemelli, Giuseppe Pallanch, said the first medical bulletin on the Pope's condition would be issued after 0900 GMT on Tuesday, once the operation was over.
The Pope is expected to stay in the hospital for some five days, barring complications, prior to convalescence.
The Vatican announced plans for the surgery last month in a statement which said a recurrent inflammation of the appendix had been the cause of three bouts of "intestinal fever" which the Pope has suffered since Christmas.
The Pope's recent frailty has caused widespread speculation from the media and doctors who are not treating him that he may be more seriously ill and suffering from a tumour.
His most senior aide, Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dismissed such suggestions on Sunday night after accompanying the Pope to the hospital.
"It is all medical fiction," Sodano told a reporter who asked about the reports.
The Pope had abdominal surgery twice in 1981 when Crucitti and other surgeons saved his life after he was shot in St Peter's Square. They removed a tumour the size of an orange from his colon in 1992 as it was beginning to turn malignant.
Corrado Manni, who is expected to be the chief anaesthetist at the operation, said the Pope's medical history could cause complications to Tuesday's surgery, expected to be carried out by traditional incision rather than modern, keyhole surgery.
"Every operation carries a certain amount of risk, especially in a patient who obviously, and unfortunately...has suffered the sort of vicissitudes that have brought the present Pontiff to the Gemelli," Manni told Italian radio.
He said so-called adhesions in the Pope's intestines were normal, given the sort of surgery he had undergone in the past.
Adhesion, when normally separate tissues get stuck together, occur between loops of intestine after abdominal surgery. Some doctors say they could make Tuesday's operation more difficult.
Because of the controversy over the Pope's state of health, the world's media has laid siege to the sprawling hospital in a hilly residential area in Rome's northeastern suburbs.
At least 30 television crews, and scores of photographers and reporters covered the Pope's arrival on Sunday night. Earlier, after a beatification ceremony in St Peter's Square, he asked the world's Roman Catholics to pray for him.
His left hand trembled violently at the ceremony. Some independent doctors say this, along with facial rigidity and a stooped gait, could be a sign of Parkinson's Disease. The Vatican has not denied such reports.
The 76-year-old pontiff, wearing a white cassock, walked slowly from his car into the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital. The operation will be Tuesday morning, said hospital spokesman Giuseppe Pallanch.
"Good luck. Good luck," yelled some of the nearly 300 people at the hospital entrance. The pope waved to the crowd.
Italy's president, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, greeted the pope inside.
"I'm very worried for him," said a nun, Sister Valentina, who had waited for the pope for hours.
The pope's recurring bouts of fevers and the loss of his once-boundless vigor have led to open speculation that he suffers from a more serious illness. The Vatican has denied every report about a chronic condition.
Leaving the hospital, the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, said anyone making guesses about the pope's health is "practicing witchcraft medicine."
It will be the pope's sixth operation at the hospital since surgery in 1981, when he was wounded in an attempted assassination in St. Peter's Square. His last operation was a hip replacement in April 1994.
The pontiff is staying in a private 10th-floor suite that includes a tiny chapel dedicated to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, the Virgin Mary icon dear to Roman Catholics in Poland. John Paul is Polish.
In his last Vatican appearance before entering the hospital, John Paul brought 16 people a step closer to sainthood and asked the faithful to pray for him. The 2 1/2-hour ceremony put his stamina to the test.
"I ask you to accompany me with your prayers," the pontiff told the crowd that filled sun-bathed square. "I send warm greetings to those in the hospital or in nursing homes, knowing that I can count on their spiritual solidarity."
When the pope finished, a man near the altar cried out: "Long life to the pope!"
Wearing emerald green vestments, John Paul appeared tired and at times his voice wavered during the ceremony of beatification, the final step before consideration for sainthood.
The pope's left hand quivered noticeably -- an affliction that has led to widespread speculation he could be suffering from a more serious illness, such as Parkinson's disease.
The pontiff gave communion to dozens of people who approached the flower-ringed altar. Many people came to wish the pope a speedy recovery.
"He deserves this small sign of solidarity," said Stefano Pola, standing far in the back of the square with his young daughter.
Those beatified included 13 martyrs from the pontiff's homeland of Poland. They were followers of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church, later united with the Vatican, who were killed by Russian soldiers in 1874 during Czarist persecution against religious ties with Rome.
After beatifying Edmund Rice, a wealthy Irish widower who founded the Christian Brothers, the pope appealed for "new harmony and peace" between "people of different political views" in Northern Ireland.
The order founded by Rice, 1762-1844, is now in 22 countries and is chiefly involved in teaching and aiding the poor. It also has gained fame for its wine making.
Also beatified were:
-- Marcellina Darowska, 1827-1911, who founded the Convent of the Immaculate Birth of St. Mary, an order dedicated to teaching girls, in what is now the Ukraine.
-- Maria Ana Mogas Fontcuberta, 1827-86, who was born near Barcelona, Spain, and founded the Franciscan Missionaries of the Mother of the Divine Pastor.
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EDITORS -- Get-well cards may be sent to: Pope John Paul II, 00120 Vatican City.
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