Ailing Pope being fed through nasal feeding tube
CTV.ca News Staff

The Pope is being fed through a nasal tube, a Vatican official said, shortly after the ailing pontiff appeared at his window and made an unsuccessful attempt to speak to pilgrims.

The tube was meant to aid his "slow and progressive" convalescence, Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Wednesday.

The 84-year-old Pope has been having difficulty swallowing since a tube was inserted in his throat Feb. 24 to help him breathe.

"He's had difficulties swallowing and this has been an increasing problem in recent times and the doctors felt they had to intervene and they did it after that audience which you saw today," Vatican Affairs Correspondent Gerry O'Connell said, appearing on CTV Newsnet.

Navarro-Valls said the feeding tube would "improve his caloric intake and promote an efficient recovery of his strength, nutrition via the positioning of a nasal-gastric tube has begun."

The procedure involves inserting a feeding tube through the throat and into the stomach for liquid formula to be fed into the abdomen. A small incision is made in the abdomen through which the tube is extended.

The Vatican's statement came shortly after the Pope's blessed worshippers from his window overlooking St. Peter's Square. He tried to speak during the short appearance but his words were unclear.

He raised his hand and made a sign of the cross as a Vatican official read greetings and prayers. His appearance came amid rumours that he would need to be hospitalized again.

But Nicola Cerbino, a spokesman at Rome's Polyclinic Gemelli hospital where John Paul was rushed twice last month, denied the rumours Wednesday and said there was no plan to hospitalize the pontiff.

The Vatican's statement also said the Pope spends "many hours" seated in an armchair, celebrates Mass in his private chapel and meets with his aides to follow "directly the activities of the Holy See and the life of the Church."

For the first time in his 26-year papacy, the frail pontiff scaled down his appearances during this year's Holy Week because of his ailments. His respiratory troubles are complicated from Parkinson's disease as well as his age.

On Sunday, he tried but failed to speak to the tens of thousands of worshippers congregating in St. Peter's Square for Easter Sunday Mass.

"I presume he was trying to give a blessing (Wednesday) what we do know is for example last Sunday before the public audience, before he came out at his window, he had tried and succeeded in giving the blessing in private," O'Connell reported.

"I mean he's a very determined man. He lives from this contact with the people."

He last spoke to the public on March 13, shortly before he was discharged from the hospital for the second time.

With files from The Associated Press

I can't believe how well this man is hanging on.  I pray for him every day.  I wonder how much longer he can last, he looks so frail.

He is a fighter that's for sure.

Sure is. :\'( I've been hearing all about this. I wonder how much longer he's gonna be around

In the history of the papacy going back to St. Peter, 26 years is loooong term as pope.  A pontiff dying of old age should consider himself fortunate!  Old JP almost died from an assassin's bullet in 1981.  The man has been ailing for the past ten years, but he just keeps hanging in there.

Oh come on guys and gals - the old man's put in a good innings for the church and if there is indeed a heaven he deserves a chance to enjoy it after all this time working for the church. Personally i can't stand the guy and everything he stands for and hope that a modernising Pope may get elected on his passing to bring the catholic church into the 19th century at long last.

Oh come on guys and gals - the old man's put in a good innings for the church and if there is indeed a heaven he deserves a chance to enjoy it after all this time working for the church. Personally i can't stand the guy and everything he stands for and hope that a modernising Pope may get elected on his passing to bring the catholic church into the 19th century at long last.

I want a pope who smokes dope!
:)

Thats more likely than one who sells little rubber socks for ya willy !  ;)

I saw a t-shirt today that I thought was kind of funny.

WARNING: If you are catholic, a pope fan or easily offended, do not click on the link below!


http://www.tshirthell.com/store/product.php?productid=458

I saw a t-shirt today that I thought was kind of funny.

WARNING: If you are catholic, a pope fan or easily offended, do not click on the link below!


http://www.tshirthell.com/store/product.php?productid=458


Hey, I like it. :) 

I think he should step down.

Thats more likely than one who sells little rubber socks for ya willy !  ;)

"If the Church would let me wear one of those little rubber things on the end of my c*ck, we wouldn't be in the mess we're all in now."
--Michael Palin
(Monty Python's The Meaning of Life)

I hate to sound like my grandmother (God rest her soul) correcting everybody's grammar all the time, but this thread should be titled "Pope is not doing very well."  Also the adverb is "too."  "To" is a preposition.

From reading the latest reports his health has now deteriorated even further.  He has a serious bladder infection and suffered heart failure over night.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4399189.stm

update-


Vatican calls John Paul's condition 'very grave'
CTV.ca News Staff

Pope John Paul II appeared to be close to death on Friday after suffering heart failure, breathing problems and blood pressure problems, but the Vatican said he is still conscious and in a stable but serious condition.

"At this moment the situation is stable but significantly serious conditions remain," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters at a morning briefing.

The Vatican earlier described the 84-year-old Pope's health as "very grave."

Navarro-Valls said the Pope had received the "Holy Viaticum" communion, reserved for those near death, after a sharp downturn in his health overnight. He told his aides he did not want to return to hospital for treatment.

"He is now struggling for his life," Vatican Correspondent Gerry O'Connell told Canada AM.

"He is not giving up."

In an unusual move, the Vatican said it will keep its press office open all night on Friday, in case there is any news to report at any time on the Pope's condition.

O'Connell also said John Paul "is aware" of his condition.

"He is very serene. He is peaceful."

The Pope was given cardio-respiratory assistance after his heart stopped Thursday afternoon. Earlier, the Vatican had said he was being treated for a high fever caused by a urinary tract infection. He is also said to be suffering from blood pressure problems.

"Like any old person he said 'I want to stay in my home' -- the Vatican -- which has been his home for 26 years," O'Connell said.

Flurry of appointments

O'Connell said the mood in Rome is sombre and sad. Still, the regular operations of the Vatican continued on Friday, with a flurry of new appointments.

A Vatican statement said John Paul had appointed 17 new bishops and archbishops. As well, the Pope also accepted the resignation of six others. The move has also fuelled speculation the Pope may be nearing the end of his life.

One of the cardinals summoned to the dying Pope's bedside for a farewell meeting on Friday morning was his close friend Edmund Szoka, a Polish-American who is the governor of Vatican City and a former archbishop of Detroit.

"They were giving him oxygen through the nose," Szoka told CBS News. "I blessed him and he tried to make the sign of the cross."

Szoka said he was having "great difficulty breathing" and was attended by three doctors, a priest and several Polish nuns.

Another cardinal close to him, Poland's Andrzej Deskur, was quoted by the Agi news agency as saying: "He is fading serenely."

On Friday, Navarro-Valls said the Pope celebrated Mass at dawn, and received some top aides -- contradicting earlier reports by Italian media that the Pope had fallen into a coma.

Navarro-Valls said the Pope remembered that it was Friday-- a day that he traditionally reads the "Via Crucis", or the Stations of the Cross. He said the pontiff asked to be read the Holy Scriptures.

'Lucid and serene'

"The Pope is still lucid, fully conscious and extraordinarily serene," Navarro-Valls said.
Choking back tears, Navarro-Valls said he had "never seen anything like this in the last 26 years" of the Pope's papacy.

A steadily-growing crowd gathered to hold vigil beneath the Pope's apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square.

The Vatican also confirmed Friday that the ailing pontiff had been given the "Holy Viaticum" -- a communion reserved for those close to death.

This is not first time the Pope has been so anointed. In 1981, after a failed assassination attempt on his life, he was also given what was then known as the last rites.

John Paul II ushered in an era of the global papal outreach, kissing the ground in 129 countries, becoming in the process the most traveled, public pope in the history of the Church.

The Pope has had to slow down considerably in recent months, however, as a series of medical setbacks have forced him to curtail his normally packed schedule.

On Wednesday, the Vatican underscored the seriousness of his condition when it confirmed the Pope was being fed through a tube.

Just hours after the pontiff made a brief silent appearance at his apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square, Navarro-Valls said doctors had inserted a nasal-gastric feeding tube.

There are reports difficulty swallowing have contributed to the Pope -- who also suffers from Parkinson's disease as well as crippling knee and hip ailments -- losing 19 kilograms since undergoing a tracheotomy to ease his breathing on Feb. 24.

That was the second time he was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital in a month.

Last week, for the first time in his 26-year papacy, the frail pope scaled down Holy Week appearances because of his ailments.

He tried, but failed Sunday to give a blessing to the crowd gathered for Easter Sunday Mass.

Images of a gaunt, pained John Paul, his body ravaged by Parkinson's and arthritis, contrast starkly to the sprightly Wojtyla who strode onto the world stage on October 16, 1978.

Historians say one of his major legacies will remain his role in the fall of communism in Europe in 1989.

His orthodox line on many Church teachings has won favor among poor-country Catholics but criticism from liberal believers in developed countries for his proclamations against contraception, abortion, homosexuality, married priests and women clergy.

With reports from CTV News

The Pope's condition has worsened-breathing shallow.

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1112335921657_34?hub=topstories

Paul John Paul clinging to life inside Vatican

The Pope is full of so much love for the world.  I pray for him to get better, and I hope he does.

The Pope is full of so much love for the world.  I pray for him to get better, and I hope he does.


something that we agree on.

but it doesn't look like he will be with us much longer.  :\'(

It's very sad, he was actually given the Last Rights yesterday afternoon, he was so ill.

He's deteriating fast. :\'(

I don't know for sure what happens when we die but if something does happen he will be in a good place,i don't personaly believe in religion fully, i believe what i believe thats it, but with the pope in his final days (official occording to the news i am watchin on the bbc) i hope he finds his peace and hope his faith led him to a better place if any one deserves it he does.

Go in peace,  john paul II