ROME LETTER: Last Sunday, Pope John Paul II was at it again.
Despite an all too obviously frail condition that has left him struggling with uncontrollable tremors in his hands, slurred speech and a greatly reduced mobility, he was out there leading a 2½-hour long canonisation service in Saint Peter's Square.
Just the day before, he had celebrated his 82nd birthday in routine fashion. Up at six o'clock on a working day when his agenda included meetings with bishops from Ecuador and Spain, as well as a short ceremony held to bless a statute of a Spanish saint (Maria Josefa Sancha de Guerra), a public audience with 7,000 school children, a working lunch with six senior Curia figures (Cardinals Sodano, Ruini, Gantin and Martinez Somalo and Archbishops Jean-Louis Tauran and Leonardo Sandri) and then time for an afternoon chat with four old friends who had flown in from Poland.
Today, the Pope will be back on the road, making the 96th overseas trip of his 23-year-long pontificate when travelling to both Azerbaijan and Bulgaria. If nothing else, this five day trip will add yet another "first" to the pontifical archives since the Pope will stay in a hotel when he stays overnight at Baku's three star, 13-room Hotel Irshad (rooms come at $90 a night).
This unprecedented development has been prompted not by the Pope's frail health but rather by the fact that in overwhelmingly Muslim Azerbaijan, there are no Catholic "houses".
Normally on an overseas visit, the Pope stays at the Papal Nunciature, the local bishop's residence, a monastery, a retreat house or even a Caritas shelter. In Azerbaijan, where there are only 120 registered Catholics, there are no such structures, leaving the Pope to head for the nearest modest hotel.
Vatican planners chose the Hotel Irshad in preference to Baku's luxury five star hotels such as the Hyatt Regency where the rooms come at $140 a night and where many of the press corps will be staying.
One might wonder just why the Pope has chosen to visit Azerbaijan at all. In truth, the visit is a diplomatic nicety, a way of evening things up with the Azeris who were a little upset when the Pope visited Armenia last September. Remember, the Azeris and Armenians have long been in conflict about the mainly ethnic Armenian conclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ironically, this visit to Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, where the Pope will meet with representatives not only of the 80,000 strong local Catholic Church but also with senior figures in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, comes just days after a renewed wave of speculation that the Pope might invoke Article 332 of Canon Law and "renounce" his mission.
That speculation, of course, was prompted by remarks last week from two very different cardinals speaking independently of one another, namely Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, (the latter a potential successor to John Paul II).
They suggested that if the Pope felt he was unable to carry on, then "he would certainly resign" [Cardinal Ratzinger] or "he would have the courage to step down" [Cardinal Maradiaga]. If such remarks mean that someone in the Holy See believes the time has finally come for John Paul II to step aside, then the Pope gave his own answer last week when twice calling on the faithful to pray for him to help him continue his mission.
Furthermore, in a remark addressed to Polish compatriots at last Wednesday's general audience, he repeated that he will remain at his post, "for as long as God so wants".
Even if his head now often slumps, even if his face has a mask like quality and even if his mobility is so bad that a cargo-lift may be used to get him on and off planes over the next few days, John Paul II remains on the road.
First stop Azerbaijan, with Canada, Mexico and Guatemala later this summer and with a new encyclical (on the Eucharist) due out some time in the autumn.
As we have said before in this letter, that hardly sounds like the diary of a man intent on renouncing office.