Papal aide downplays pope's health; cardinal says pope on 'last days'

Published: 2003-10-02

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II's closest aide downplayed concerns about the pope's health, but an Austrian cardinal said the pope is approaching "the last days and months of his life." The Vatican, meanwhile, added new events to the pontiff's already heavy October schedule. Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn told the Austrian state radio ORF Oct. 2 that "the entire world is experiencing a pope who is sick, who is disabled, and who is dying -- I don't know how near death he is -- who is approaching the last days and months of his life." The cardinal's spokesman later said his remarks were intended "philosophically." At the Vatican the same day, Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's longtime personal secretary, told reporters jokingly that many journalists who have predicted the pope's demise "are already in heaven." His remarks came after a new round of dire media speculation on the pope's condition.

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