Gilroy
– Pope John Paul II, the Vatican’s third longest-serving pope,
clung to life Friday afternoon, with shallow breathing and a
failing heart and kidneys. Many faithful in Gilroy prayed, lit
candles, and wept as they followed what seemed to be the final
hours for the 84-year-old pontiff.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Pope John Paul II, the Vatican’s third longest-serving pope, clung to life Friday afternoon, with shallow breathing and a failing heart and kidneys. Many faithful in Gilroy prayed, lit candles, and wept as they followed what seemed to be the final hours for the 84-year-old pontiff.
“He was a strong, powerful, forceful leader,” said the Rev. Dan Derry, head of St. Mary Parish, reflecting on the pope’s accomplishments. “He’s been a great leader – a good image of Christ as a shepherd, with the special care he had for the marginalized, social justice and human dignity. He combined that with a great deal of personal holiness and personal appeal.”
As word of his condition spread across the globe, special Masses celebrated the pope for transforming the Roman Catholic Church during his 26-year papacy and for his example in fearlessly confronting death.
St. Mary parishioners Marge and John Albaugh watched images of St. Peter’s Square broadcast non-stop Friday, and remembered when they were “blessed” to attend a private audience with John Paul three years ago.
“We weren’t worthy of it, but we really appreciated it,” Marge Albaugh said.
Albaugh was retiring after 22 years with Saint Joseph’s Family Center when she and her husband were chosen to attend a Rome appearance by the pope, along with 18,000 others. Thanks to a recommendation from Rev. Derry and San Jose Bishop Patrick J. McGrath, the couple were selected to join a private audience of 40 people.
“(Rev. Derry) told (John Paul) of our work at St. Joseph’s, and all we did for the poor,” Albaugh said. “When we got there, we were told we were going to be specially blessed, and that the pope was so impressed with the work of St. Joseph’s Center, he wanted to meet me.”
Though he was slightly stooped and difficult to understand because of his Parkinson’s Disease, Albaugh recalled his sense of humor, and the way the “man of the people” walked through the room speaking some of the six languages he knew to various visitors.
“We all come to that point when it’s our time to leave, and he is doing this very gracefully and graciously,” said Albaugh, holding back emotion. “We have been blessed to have him for such a long time.”
Other local religious leaders reflected on John Paul’s legacy. Rev. Ron Koch of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church credited the pope with trying to bring together both the eastern and western church traditions.
“Certainly, he’s probably been one of the most admired popes, one of the most popular among the people, and I’m sure he’ll be missed,” Koch said. “Wherever he’s [traveled], I think he’s spoken up for the little ones, the least in the kingdom, and called government to responsibility to the little people of the world.”
A Gilroy resident and 57-year member of the Catholic Ladies’ Aid Society said she was praying for John Paul.
“I know he was a very strong man, and he tried to help the poor an awful lot,” Betty Scarper said. “People here try to help the poor all the time – the organization I belong to is for nothing but charity around Gilroy – and the pope was … an inspiration.”
Albaugh said he brought the Catholic church into the modern day.
“He has been able to keep the beauty of long ago, and bring it into today,” she said. “He was able to reach into the hearts (of the poor) and empathize with what they were going through because of his earlier years in Poland.”
In Morgan Hill, the local Roman Catholic community was praying for the health of Pope John Paul II at St. Catherine Church where a Mass was celebrated at noon on Friday by about 20 people, according to a church representative. The special Mass was in addition to the regular daily Mass held weekday mornings, the representative said, and was a “spontaneous” event resulting from the number of calls the church received requesting church members unite in prayer for the pope.
Meanwhile, halfway across the globe, a crowd up to 70,000 people prayed and stood vigil late into the night at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Wrapping themselves in blankets, many tearfully gazed at John Paul’s third-floor windows, where the lights remained on early Saturday.
“This evening or this night, Christ opens the door to the pope,” Angelo Comastri, the pope’s vicar general for Vatican City told the crowd.
The Vatican said Friday morning that John Paul was in “very grave” condition after suffering blood poisoning from a urinary tract infection the previous night, but that he was “fully conscious and extraordinarily serene” and declined to be hospitalized.
By Friday night, the pope’s condition had worsened further, and he was suffering from kidney failure and shortness of breath but had not lost consciousness as of 9:30 p.m., the Vatican said.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the Vatican’s health minister, told Mexico’s Televisa dal Vaticano that the pope “is about to die.”
“I talked to the doctors and they told me there is no more hope,” the Mexican cardinal told the television channel.
The pope’s declining health Friday morning made for an interesting convergence of events given the recent death of Terri Schiavo, said Rev. Eric Smith of South Valley Community Church.
“He’s maybe communicating more through his silent suffering right now than he would even if he could speak,” Smith said about noon Friday. “Obviously, his courage and his perseverance is pretty impressive right now. … I know it’s been culminating in the last five or six days, but he’s been suffering and functioning under quite a lot of pain.”
Hospitalized twice last month after breathing crises, and fitted with a breathing tube and a feeding tube, John Paul has become a picture of suffering. His papacy has been marked by its call to value the aged and to respect the sick, subjects the pope has turned to as he battles Parkinson’s disease and crippling knee and hip ailments.
John Paul’s health declined sharply Thursday when he developed a high fever brought on by the infection. The pope suffered septic shock and heart problems during treatment for the infection, the Vatican said.
Septic shock involves both bacteria in the blood and a consequent over-relaxing of the blood vessels.
The vessels, which are normally narrow and taut, get floppy in reaction to the bacteria and can’t sustain any pressure. That loss of blood pressure is catastrophic, making the heart work hard to compensate for the collapse.
Even the fittest patients need special care and medicine to survive.
“The chances of an elderly person in this condition with septic shock surviving 24 to 48 hours are slim – about 10 to 20 percent, but that would be in an intensive care unit with very aggressive treatment,” said Dr. Gianni Angelini, a professor of cardiac surgery at Bristol University in England.
On Friday morning, John Paul asked aides to read him the biblical passage describing the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross, the path that Christ took to his Crucifixion and burial, Vatican Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters. The pope followed attentively and made the sign of the cross, he said.
John Paul also asked that scripture of the so-called “Third Hour” be read to him. The passage is significant because according to tradition, Christ died at three o’clock in the afternoon.
“This is surely an image I have never seen in these 26 years,” the usually unflappable Navarro-Valls said.
Choking up, he walked out of the pope’s room.
