A legacy of love

The pope hit a hundred this summer, and despite his obvious illness he's headed for 101 and 102 — trips, that is. John Paul himself is only 83.

But this week, shortly before Pope John Paul II celebrates his 25th anniversary as leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics, one of his closest advisers expressed alarm.

"He's in a bad way," Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told the German weekly magazine Bunte. "We should pray for the pope."

The pontiff suffers from Parkinson's disease and severe arthritis, and he survived an assassination attempt in 1981. For years he has looked frail, at times needing help to walk and to preside over religious ceremonies. And in recent months, he has seemed to grow worse, even as he has traveled across several continents since summer 2002: He visited Canada, Guatemala, Mexico and Poland last year, and Spain, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia in 2003. Reporters made much of the fact that during John Paul's appearances in Slovakia in September he was unable to read some of his homilies and couldn't stand without help.

Then, when a group of German brewers sought an audience with the pope in mid-September, they were rebuffed. An aide to the cardinal, however, said Ratzinger's "bad way" remark didn't mean John Paul's health had worsened in recent days. Vatican observers speculate that the pope's advisers hope to conserve his energy for events around the anniversary on Oct. 16.

Yet the entreaty to "pray for the pope" isn't terribly unusual, said the Rev. Joseph Mayo, rector of the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City.

"It's not a death scare," the Rev. Mayo said. "We pray that he'll be able to continue his work. It's a very overwhelming job."

Catholics — at least those who are participating — pray out loud for "John Paul our pope, George (Niederauer) our bishop, and all the clergy," during Mass each Sunday.

As for lay people's private prayers, the pope is included in those, too, though not necessarily due to any particular instruction.

"I sometimes specifically mention or think about the pope in my prayers, but most of the time I feel he is just one of the many I pray for when thinking about people in leadership roles," said Paul White, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and member of the lay Dominican group at St. Catherine's Newman Center. "I pray for him as I pray for all people to have a growing relationship with God, in whatever way that may come about for them."