Frail pope is still firm on abortion

ROZNAVA, Slovakia — Finding a vivid way to emphasize Pope John Paul II's opposition to abortion, Roman Catholic leaders here introduced him on Saturday to 3-year-old twins who had been joined at birth and were later separated.

As each little girl was held above his lap while he sat in a thronelike chair on the altar of a makeshift outdoor cathedral, he stroked her face. Then the girls' mother, Melita Tothova, who had lifted them toward the pope, knelt and kissed his hand.

In a recent interview with a Slovak television network, Tothova said the girls had endured considerable suffering. But they were introduced on Saturday as symbols to show that healthy, joyful people might develop from fetuses with defects. In Slovakia, women who know their fetuses have defects often choose abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy, and the country is now debating whether such abortions should be explicitly permitted by law.

The staging of the twins' appearance at a special papal Mass in Roznava, in southeastern Slovakia, also suggested the intensity of Catholic officials' desires and efforts to keep the Slovak people attached to Catholic teachings and traditions.

Slovakia, which is predominantly Catholic, is set to enter the European Union next year, and church leaders do not want the country to follow some West European nations' drift away from Christianity.

Many of the pope's planned remarks during his visit here, which is scheduled to end today, have implored Slovaks not to let their hopes for economic progress distract them from devotion to their faith.

But John Paul, 83, has not delivered most of those comments himself. Since arriving in Slovakia on Thursday, he has struggled to enunciate words; sometimes he has been unable to speak, and other church leaders have read portions of his speeches.

The pope suffers from Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological disorder. He trembles almost constantly, does not stand without help, and seems unable to take even a short step on his own.

His frailty has been more evident on this trip than at perhaps any other time in the past year. At some moments, he has been almost inarticulate, his face blank. At others, he has communicated relatively clearly, with animation in his eyes.

During the Mass on Saturday, which drew tens of thousands of people to a green, sloping meadow, he again had trouble getting his words out, and there were long pauses between some of them. But he did not look as stricken and pale as he had at the start of the trip, his 102nd foreign journey as pope.

Abortion is legal in Slovakia in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and the Parliament recently voted to recognize and legally validate the practice of allowing abortions through 24 weeks of pregnancy if a fetus has a defect. President Rudolf Schuster vetoed that measure, and the pope thanked him for that, according to the pope's spokesman.

Tothova, the mother of the twins, has told reporters that she did not know about their condition before she gave birth. The girls had been joined at the pelvis.

But on Saturday the twins walked with vigor up gold-carpeted steps to an altar where the pope sat, clutching their mother's arms and carrying dolls.