ITALY: The sight of an ailing Pope prompts serious questions about the wisdom of papal travel, writes Paddy Agnew in Rome
Last Thursday evening at about 7.30, Pope John Paul II's black open-topped Lancia limousine was making its way slowly away from the cathedral of St John the Baptist in Trnava, 60 kilometres down the road from the Slovak capital, Bratislava. A security problem up ahead forced the limousine to stop, just 50 yards away from the cathedral.
Immediately, and inevitably, pilgrims crowded close to the papal car to greet him. Equally quickly and inevitably, Vatican security officials and Slovak policemen got between the crowd and the car, ostensibly to protect the Pontiff.
Looking at the exhausted Pope, whose day had begun more than 13 hours earlier 1,400 kilometres away at his summer residence of Castelgandolfo, south of Rome, one had the impression that the security personnel were also intent on protecting him from prying eyes. Earlier, on that first day of this 102nd overseas visit of his pontificate, the ailing 83-year-old Pope had been in patent difficulty, clearly in pain and unable to finish his airport arrival speech.
The sight and sound of the Pope, head bent over, hands trembling, slurring his words and occasionally dribbling saliva, not only set off another fresh round of "Papal Health Alarm" stories but it also yet again asks serious questions about the wisdom of papal travel. Should an 83-year-old man, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and chronic arthritis and whose overall medical history also includes having survived both colon cancer and a 1981 assassination attempt, subject himself to strenuous overseas travel? Should the infirm Pope not allow himself, or be encouraged to allow himself, to live out his illness and frailty in private, far from the prying, intrusive media glare?
The short, official Vatican answer to these questions is "No". When asked about the Pope and future travel last week, senior Vatican spokesman Dr Joaquin Navarro Valls told a Bratislava news conference: "Clearly - and we all saw them, there are certain - evident physical limits to the Pope's . The extraordinary thing is that he doesn't even minimally try to hide his physical limitations but rather incorporates them into his pastoral ministry." The Vatican spokesman went on to say that, as of now, the Pope has been invited to visit four countries (Austria, France, Switzerland and his native Poland) next year, adding: "If you want my opinion, for what it's worth, I would say that I think some or all of these trips will take place".
Yesterday, speaking to Italian television on the last day of the Slovakia visit, Dr Navarro Valls once more played down concerns about the Pope's health, saying, as he has said before, that "notwithstanding everything", the Pope "retains a huge zest for life". Cynics would object that the papal spokesman would say that anyway, and that such answers do not address one of key issues of these "end of pontificate" years: namely, how firm a hand does the Pope himself have on the Vatican tiller and, in this particular case, on the planning of overseas trips?
Put another way, does a small, cynical group of Vatican mandarins send him out on the road for a variety of geopolitical reasons, notwithstanding his poor health? Not only Navarro Valls but also senior Curia figures have always indignantly rejected such speculation, arguing that it is the Pope himself who forces the pace on issues such as travelling, as well as on the overall policy direction of the pontificate.
It was the Pope in person who led the Vatican's resistance to US-led military intervention in Iraq last winter, they point out, and it is the Pope himself who wants to defy his infirmities and get back on the road with his evangelical message.
It is tempting to suggest that it serves the Vatican's purposes all too well to have the Pope visit former East Bloc, soon-to-be European Union countries such as Slovakia and Croatia to fight the good fight for Europe's Christian identity and, in the specific case of Slovakia last week, an ongoing abortion debate. A papal visit in person is worth a thousand Urbe et Orbis on television.
Yet Vatican insiders furthermore point out that there is no part of the world this Pope more willingly visits than his own, beloved Eastern Europe. On one occasion some years ago, a senior Vatican figure observed the Pope in animated conversation with the Slovak Cardinal, Jozef Tomko, then head of the Vatican Congregation of Propaganda Fide.
With a smile, the Pope explained that he spoke to Tomko in Polish, Tomko replied in Slovak and they understood one another perfectly - a Slavic brotherhood. Not for nothing it was to Cardinal Tomko that the Pope delegated his speech-reading duties on several occasions last week.
Then, too, it is worth asking if the Pope is aware of the media impact created by his all too obvious infirmity. His closest advisors claim that, in contrast, he cares more about his belief that the evolving European Union must acknowledge its profoundly Christian roots in its prospective constitution. He cares more about opposing secularist, materialist tendencies in post-communist Europe than about a photo opportunity gone wrong.
One thing, though, does emerge from the Slovakia trip. Namely, that ill as the Pope has been for the last couple of years, he has become even more infirm now. Vatican gossip this summer reported that he had been swimming a lot in the Castelgandolfo pool and that his health had taken another of its periodic jumps, this time forwards.
The evidence of last week does not bear this out. He is now, to all intents and purposes, wheelchair-bound, short on his once legendary stamina and even shorter of breath, especially if he has to read a long speech. It is six years now since he was able to walk down the Vatican plane and have one of his legendary chats with the Vatican press corps. The last time he was able to walk off his plane on arrival was in Canada last summer and the last time he was able to stand through a Mass was in Madrid in May.
None of that, however, is likely to stop this Pope. Not for the first time, one Vatican source observed last weekend: "This guy will die with boots on". Travelling boots, of course.