FRANCE/THE VATICAN: The Pope is "seriously weakened" and may have been making his farewells at Lourdes, said a cardinal who accompanied John Paul II to the French shrine at the weekend.
"It was one of the most moving celebrations ever," Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, who is himself seen as a possible future pope, told newspapers.
"The Pope is seriously weakened," he said. "When the Pope says, 'I end my pilgrimage here', then that can be taken two ways ... his farewell to Lourdes and maybe to his life."
It was an official holiday in the Vatican yesterday and church officials did not immediately issue any comment on the cardinal's assessment of the Pope's health.
The 84-year-old pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and crippling hip and knee problems, trembled and asked for help at one point during yesterday's long open-air service.
The Vatican said John Paul made the trip to Lourdes for spiritual reasons, but many who visit the shrine are sick, handicapped or aged seeking miracle cures. Thousands claim to have been healed and the Church has recognised 66 cures as miracles.
Last October, Cardinal Danneels suggested in a magazine interview that he thought ailing popes in the future would abdicate, because there are currently no provisions in Church law to remove an incapacitated pontiff. He later stressed that such a decision must be the prerogative of the Pope and that he thought Pope John Paul was still mentally astute, despite his failing health.