Pope is stable, but his speech will suffer

[WhiteTara]

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=216402005


<snip>
POPE John Paul’s ability to speak in public, including his famous orations in St Peter’s Square, will be seriously curtailed by his recent ill-health, experts have said.


<snip>
It is now believed the effects of this operation could be permanent, making it much more difficult for the Pope - whose voice is already weakened and at times inaudible as a result of Parkinson’s disease - to speak at length.

I think the metaphorical implications of his inability to speak - speak volumes.

[tuvor]

1. He called homosexuals evil on God's behalf.

Maybe God didn't really appreciate that.

[Warpy]

3. that sounded like Ratzinger

I have little use for this pope, but he's usually a bit more temperate in his speech and writing that that.

Ratzinger, on the other hand, is a right wing jerk.

[dkhbrit]

5. Good

Most of what he says is hateful anyway

[KDLarsen]

2. With all due respect..

.. how could anyone understand what he said before? It sounded like he was mumbling along.

[Generic Other]

4. That was only because he was speaking in tongues

:evilgrin:

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Generic Other]

8. Sounds more like karma to me

but then, I'm a heathen.

[Sean Reynolds]

9. Weird!

Someone I was talking about said this was happening because he opposed the Iraq war.

[tuvor]

10. You saying God was tardy?

[Sean Reynolds]

25. Well his health DID start to decline around that tme...

Hm... ;)

Either way, I don't buy this is an action by God for his comments. Or Bush would have been gone LOOOOOOONG before the Pope.

[FrankieBud]

7. It does seem like justice for his last days.

He could spew hatred in 12 different languages.

[donheld]

11. Welcome to DU Frankie

:hi:

[IndianaGreen]

12. Dispute over condition of Pope's health (Pope unlikely to recover)

Dispute over condition of Pope's health
By John Phillips in Rome
26 February 2005

Medical experts said they were unconvinced by an upbeat assessment from the Vatican of the Pope's health after surgery which left the pontiff unable to speak.

The chief Vatican spokes-man, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said the 84-year-old Pope spent a restful night at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic after a 30-minute tracheotomy to ease another breathing crisis. Dr Navarro-Valls denied Italian reports that the pontiff had been on a respirator after the operation, which he said was not an emergency procedure. He brought smiles to the assembled Vatican press corps when he added diplomatically that "upon the advice of his doctors, the Pope must not speak for several days, so as to favour the recovery of the functions of the larynx". Doctors said privately it would be "miraculous" for any patient to be able to speak after a tracheotomy and there was little hope of the Pope's recovery.

<snip>

Professor Bergamesco, head of neuroscience at the University of Turin, said the Pope was unlikely to recover from the crisis which forced doctors to perform the operation.

"The relapse of the flu within a few days of his first hospitalisation is a sign that does not leave a great deal of hope," Professor Bergamesco told La Stampa.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=614887

[Gloria]

13. Olbermann cited reports about the Pope having a latte and eating

biscuits. Writing jokes out on paper minutes after coming out of anaesthesia ....etc. etc.

I think it's spin....like Bush spin....

[DARE to HOPE]

15. I just remember the last time we picked a Pope...

...so I don't want this one to leave us just yet.

I am not even Roman Catholic, but as conservative as this Pope has been (it isn't easy representing people from all over the world)--Pope John Paul II has fought the Nazis, fought the Communists, fought the supply-side idea that the earth and its peoples are commodities, raised the consciousness of the first world relative to the third et al. And with Bush still in the WH, but this Pope gone, the world will be a still MORE miserable place.

I want this spokesman for God's Peace to be in the Vatican a little while longer. I fear what may come after.

[mutus_frutex]

19. It really is a sign of the times that people think that this pope is good.

This guy is throwing the church back to the 19th century (and that is being generous). The RCC was going in a very liberal direction in the 60's and JPII has virtually erased the effects of the opening.

Considering the influence that the Opus Dei has in Rome right now, the chance that the next pope will be better are rather slim.

[flordehinojos]

20. i do too want this pope to stay a while longer...let's holding him down

with prayers for his recovery. (Did you ever see that movie The Shoes of the Fisherman which is said to have been a take on JOHN XXIII's life?) Well... John XXIII didn't stick around all that much and neither did his successor Paul VI ...His successor this Pope has ... and he seems to be being called home at a time when the earth really need him--they also say people don't die until you give them permission to die...the pope must know that there are many of us who do not want him to die...and heaven must know that too).

[WhiteTara]

23. Are you thinking of the 3 month stint of the pope

before this one?  That was certainly telling about the church
and its secrets, don't you think?

[DARE to HOPE]

26. I believe it was only one month, only thirty days...

And that is what I am afraid of in replacing the current pope. It is naive to think that Pope John Paul II has accomplished all he wanted with the straight jacket of the Opus Dei folks around him, following the death of John Paul I.

As for the church becoming more liberal--Pope John XXIII was installed (in 1959?) only as a stopgap pope (they'd expected him to die early)--who instantly used what power he had to open the Second Vatican Council. He brought in the power of the bishops from all over the world to speak for the church, rather than the enclosed Vatican. By the time the conservatives' chosen candidate was installed five years later as Paul VI (read Yallop's book for the dirty details) it was too late--the barn door had been opened and the horses fled. (God's work, as well as dear Angelo's, I do believe.)

Read about the murder of Pope John Paul I if you can still find David Yallop's book: "In God's Name."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553050737/qid=1109455465/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3595908-0000061?v=glance&s=books

P.S. The political calculation that went into the name for John Paul I showed clearly, I thought at the time, that the Vatican was trying to combine people's loving memories of the charismatic Roncalli with those for the dour and compromised Paul VI--it was he who put out the encyclical against birth control, not the present pope.

[daleo]

18. Reminiscent of after Reagan was shot as well.

He was supposed to be joking with the doctors about the assassins poor aim, but I gather now that was all made up.

[Dookus]

14. I find it difficult to believe

that flu-related symptoms are causing his problems. It sounds like the results of his Parkinsons. I'll be surprised if he leaves the hospital.

[u4ic]

17. It's most likely both...

coughing, which helps to break up mucus in the lungs, would be very difficult for him in his stage of Parkinson's; also his immune system would be compromised.

Some believe he has pnuemonia, not just a simple flu. Pneumonia kills a good many Parkinson's sufferers.

I don't think he'll leave that hospital alive.

[lovuian]

16. I'm just glad he is off the ventilator!!!

No matter what let the man be in peace!!!

[kskiska]

21. Didn't Rehnquist have a tracheotomy?

I thought he did. He can speak.

[WhiteTara]

24. He has a different disease

cancer of the thyroid.  Also interesting on a metaphorical
level.  The thyroid regulates the entire system...his is
killing him.  Does he have some control issues, I wonder?

[IndianaGreen]

22. BBC is now saying that Vatican officials and doctors doubt the Pope...

can continue as Pope:

No part for Pope in Sunday rite

Last Updated: Saturday, 26 February, 2005, 11:33 GMT

Some church officials and doctors have privately expressed doubts about the Pope's capacity to continue to exercise the high office he has held for over 26 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4299981.stm