Pope marks 25-year pontificate: conclave speculation thrives during frail pope's silver jubilee

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 24, 2003 by John L. Allen, Jr.

Six cardinals were selected to deliver addresses at the symposium. Cardinal Bernard Gantin of Benin spoke on the Petrine ministry and communion in the episcopate; French Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger tackled the subject of priests, consecrated life and vocations; Lopez Trujillo handled the family; Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir of Lebanon spoke on ecumenism; Cardinal Ivan Dias of India addressed missions; and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the secretary of state, described the pope as peacemaker. Of the six, only Dias is regarded as a potential papabile, or candidate to be pope.

On Sunday, Oct. 19, John Paul II will beatify Mother Teresa, and on Oct. 21 he will introduce 31 new members in the College of Cardinals, continuing a punishing October schedule for the frail 83-year-old pontiff.

Throughout mid-October, Italian television repeatedly broadcast footage from the beginning of John Paul's reign 25 years ago. Images of the 58-year-old pontiff of 1978, who took the world stage by storm, contrasted sharply with the John Paul of 2003, incapable of moving under his own power and struggling to finish sentences.

Nevertheless, Vatican officials firmly rejected speculation that John Paul might resign.

"Popes do not retire. They are chosen as servants for life," Gantin said during his address.

Despite ups and downs, he just won't quit

Around the Vatican this week, the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II. It is only the third time in church history that a pope has reached a silver jubilee--the previous two were Pius IX and Leo XII. Add to the point that no Pope that no pope has ever shouldered the burdens that John Paul II has taken upon himself, and the true dimensions of his sense of duty begin to reveal themselves.

This is the man who just won't quit

The flip side of iron determination, of course is concern over just how much longer his physical capacity to govern will hold up. The latest health scare came Sunday, Oct. 12 when a rumor swept through Rome that the Pope was on dialysis. Cell phones went off across town, as networks put doctors on standby, and nervous TV crews went onto red alert. Within a couple of hours, however, it became a clear that the rumor was unfounded.

Despite some very public ups and downs, the pope has so far made it through his October schedule. Meanwhile, Vatican officials seems to be preparing the world from an increasingly limited papacy. Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, a Portugese prelate who heads the Congregation for Saints. said Oct. 12 that John Paul continue to run the church even if he loses his ability to speak.

My sense is that most observer in town, including many in the Vatican, find themselves in an oddly schizophrenic state--on the one hand ready for anything to happen, on the other well aware of John Paul's track record for outliving prediction of his demise.

I was recently interviewed by Io Donna, the Saturday magazine of Italy's leading daily newspaper Corriere della Sera about the massive, and sometimes slightly ghoulish, media interest in the pope's health and next conclave. The reporter asked if I thought John Paul himself finds it distasteful.