Pope may be using health as a message to his flock

VATICAN CITY -- He can't speak clearly or for long and can barely gesture. His head slumps until it rests on his chest. Pope John Paul II has become a preacher who cannot preach, the latest and clearest sign that his reign over the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics is nearing its end.

During recent celebrations and seminars centering on the 25th anniversary of John Paul's papacy, a common if under-the-breath topic of conversation was: Why is the pope doing this? Why is he exposing his illness and pains to the public at large?

Some outside observers who have met the pope and perused his voluminous store of writing perceive a reason that is both mystical and down to earth. John Paul has yet one more message to deliver to his flock and is using the last resource at his disposal: his own, shriveled, trembling body.

"He is telling people something he has believed his entire life: Suffering is part of the human condition. He embodies a basic teaching and he's doing it by not being ashamed of his illnesses," said George Weigel, an American biographer of the pope.

"There is no question this is preaching done with the body," said Vittorio Messori, an Italian writer who interviewed the pontiff for a book on his teachings. "Death is not something to flee. He forces us to look at it right in the face."

The pope himself has not spoken directly on his reasoning. Indeed, he has only indirectly indicated that he will stay on the job until death. At his anniversary Mass more than a week ago, he appealed to a throng of worshipers to "help the pope to serve man and all humanity."

Talk by so many people about the pope's end appears to have become an irritant to the Vatican hierarchy. On Wednesday, the official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano criticized discussion of whether the pontiff can and should continue in office, calling such questioning "limp and indelicate."

Such appeals are probably hopeless. For one thing, this pope's physical presence has long been part of his message. In 1978, he took over in vigorous form from a frail predecessor, John Paul I, who died after only a month in office -- and who had succeeded a gaunt and arthritic Paul VI.

"The pope was happy to flaunt his physical person. From hiking, to tossing babies in the air, to daily swims, John Paul II is a pope whose body projected energy and therefore an energetic papacy. Now that the profile has changed, it's too late to say his body doesn't matter," said Alberto Melloni, a history professor at Modena University.

The health and state of a pope's body first became a subject of intense theological consideration in the Middle Ages. The popes of the 11th and 12th centuries were fighting both a series of internal battles and trying to extend their influence beyond the Italian Alps. Popes of the era were declared to be not merely the Vicar, or substitute on earth, of the first pope, Saint Peter, but the Vicar of Christ.

From that time on, the pope's body was viewed as more than the flesh and blood of a man; it was the incarnation of the whole church. A biographer of Alexander III, a 12th-century pope, wrote, "Everyone looked at his face as the face of Christ." The pope became a divine metaphor.

The current pontiff has in effect democratized the metaphor by attributing a sacred message to the flesh of every person. In 1980 he promulgated a "Theology of the Body" in which he declared: "The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the invisible mystery hidden in God."

John Paul proposed the Theology of the Body in the context of his teachings on sexuality, but Weigel thinks it is applicable to his thoughts on suffering and death. "What you see is a display of the church's ancient belief that the human body is something mysterious, an icon, something in which we see the reality of God," he said. "The pope is also taking a shot at the excess attention paid to youth and beauty in society."

Still, there is the practical question of communication for a pontiff who has put a high value on preaching. For the past year, several Vatican observers and some prelates speculated that once John Paul was unable to speak, he would give up the papacy.

During two Masses last week, the pope's homilies were turned over to an aide to read. John Paul recited some prayers aloud, but his words could not be understood. With this threshold breached, some in the Vatican are now suggesting that it is unnecessary for the pope to speak.

"I don't accept the idea that we can't have a silent pope. He can still make decisions. Even if he can't talk, he can write, he can give instructions," said Tarcisio Bertone, one of 31 new cardinals installed this week. In this view, the pope speaks above all by example.

Copyright C 2003 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.