Charity is easy in the Eternal City; so is speculating, fervor for pope

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 11, 1996 by Patricia Lefevere

Despite Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls' assurances that "there is not a cause for worry now," rumors continue to flow. Of Parkinson's disease, of cancer and of other neurological and degenerative conditions.

One such story that surfaced during John Paul's visit to France last month was that he had signed a resignation letter two years ago in the event of his mental incapacitation. The Italian and British press reported that copies of the letter resided with Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Cardinal Eduardo Martines-Somalo, the pope's chamberlain.

Navarro-Valls dismissed a journalist's question about the alleged letter, noting that he (the spokesman) had more "serious issues" with which to deal.

A priest who has worked in the Vatican three decades told NCR that not only was there no such letter--"This pope would never step down"--but that there was "no protocol and no mechanism for who determines if a pope is incompetent.

"The word Alzheimer's, has never been mentioned around here," he said.

Wanting to see the pope myself, I boarded bus, subway and train to reach Castel Gandolfo Sept. 30 to hear his final Angelus message this year from his summer residence.

With a trembling left hand, but in a somber, slow, steady voice the pope lamented the tragic events of late September in Israel/Palestine and called once more for both sides to pursue a path of peace. He also greeted pilgrims in French, Polish, English, Portuguese and Italian and even managed a laugh when a Polish song went forth, jarringly off-key.

Tears bathed the face of a man holding his granddaughter on his shoulders. A group of Italian signoras dried their eyes while a young nun in a white habit smiled into my camera lens. "He should not die," she said.

"May you live 100 years," the Polish toast heard round the world since Karol Wojtyla occupied Peter's chair in 1978, ascended again from cheering Polish Catholics at Castel Gandolfo. Meanwhile back inside the Vatican, the Pension Sant Marta, where the cardinals will meet in consistory to elect John Paul II's successor, has just been completed. It holds a bedroom and study for each voting cardinal.

On Oct. 2, the pope was back in Rome to greet more crowds in St. Peter's Square and on Oct. 6 he was scheduled to beatify 13 Polish martyrs and three educators-Maria Anna Mogas Fonfcurberta of Barcelona, the Spanish prioress; Marcelina Darowska, the Polish nun and educator of girls; and Edmund Rice, the Irish educator of boys and founder of the Christian Brothers and Brothers of the Presentation.

All 16 saints-to-be lived much or all of their lives in the early 19th century. Both Darowska and Rice, who later founded religious orders, were married and, while still in their 20s, their spouses died. Darowska's daughter died at age two and Rice reared a handicapped daughter.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims reportedly will attend the festivities from Spain, Poland and Ireland. Many Americans are also here for Rice's beatification--teachers, students and alumni of the numerous U.S. Christian Brothers schools.