Pope John Paul II Has Gone to His Heavenly Home with God 2:37 pm EST

The Vatican has been transparent in allowing news media access to information about Pope John Paul II. Pope John Paul II is responsible for the change in how the Vatican views the media.

His heart and kidneys are failing. The Vatican said that this does not suggest that he is suffering.

He drifts in and out of consciousness. One Vatican source said that it appeared that the Pope is resting with his eyes shut.

Pope John Paul II has responded by opening his eyes when spoken to. He has also tried to speak in the past few hours.

An Aide assisted Pope John Paul II in writing a message to his beloved staff gathered in the Papal apartment. The Pope asked them not to be sad for him.

Pope John Paul II has suffered a cardiac arrest and is in a grave condition, the Vatican has announced.

The urgent communique came hours after the Pope's health worsened with a high fever caused by an infection.

"Following a urinary tract infection, septic shock and a cardiocirculatory collapse occurred," Vatican spokesman Navarro-Valls said in his statement.

The Pope was also given the last rites - the Catholic sacrament for the sick and dying, the spokesman said.

The emergency department chief at Rome's Gemelli hospital said on Thursday the Pope would not be taken to hospital for the time being.

Small groups of faithful gathered at St Peter's Square in Rome to pray for the Pope's speedy recovery.

However, the mood in the Vatican is sombre, the BBC's David Willey in Rome reports.

Prelates are openly expressing pessimism about the possibility of the Pope ever resuming the guidance of his one billion-strong church, our correspondent says.

The pontiff is being fed through a nasal tube to aid his recovery from throat surgery last month.

The Pope had appeared briefly at the window of his Vatican apartment on Easter Sunday to bless the faithful, but was not able to speak.

It was the first time during his 26-year pontificate that the Pope delegated the main Easter ceremonies to his cardinals.

On Thursday afternoon, the Pope's temperature soared to 40 degrees C (104F), Italian media reported.

He developed breathing troubles and has difficulty in swallowing as a result of the progress of Parkinson's Disease, an incurable condition from which he has been suffering for nearly a decade.

Since his throat surgery, he has lost about 19 kg (42 lb), Father Hejmo said, which leaves him more vulnerable to infections.

The Pope's private doctor Renato Buzzetti is in charge of his medical treatment in his private apartment at the Vatican.

So far this year the Pope has had two spells in hospital where he received treatment for breathing problems and underwent an operation on his throat.

The Holy Bible - New International Version

The Holy Bible King James Version 2000

The Holy Bible: King James Version The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis 1 The Creation

The Bible, Revised Standard Version Old and New Testaments, with the Apocrypha

The Holy Bible - New International Version
Genesis

The Beginning

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.

BBC News UK Edition

Saturday, 2 April, 2005, 08:45 GMT 09:45 UK

Anxious wait for news of the Pope

The Pope asked not to
return to hospital for treatment

Roman Catholics around the world are waiting and praying as the life of Pope John Paul II, crippled by age and illness, ebbs away at the Vatican.

No word has been heard on his condition for more than 12 hours but a briefing has been scheduled for 0930 GMT.

At the last update, his breathing was reportedly shallow, his blood pressure low and there were problems with both his heart and kidneys.

Many are gathering again on St Peter's Square, after an evening vigil.

Lights burned through the night in the Pope's window as several hundred people, many of them tearful, stayed out in the square, wrapped in blankets to shield them from the cold.

"This is a life-changing night," said pilgrim Roberto Mazzi, 26, as he entered the square.

"He's the only Pope we've ever known and now he's dying. To be anywhere else, in any other mood, would be wrong."

Sister Arlete, a nun who attended morning Mass at the Vatican, said that while she felt sadness at the Pope's approaching death there was " happiness that his suffering will end because he's truly suffering".

'About to die'

"This evening or tonight, Christ opens the doors to the Pope," Monsignor Angelo Comastri told worshippers at Friday night's vigil on the square, attended by some 70,000 people.

Prayers have been offered up for the pontiff worldwide

Newspapers in Italy and across the world splashed farewell messages to the Pope on Saturday.

"Long Farewell to the Dying Pope" read a headline in La Repubblica while Il Tempo simply said "Ciao, Karol", using the Polish-born Pope's original first name.

Sombre bulletins from the Vatican on the pontiff's deteriorating condition were reflected in comments by Church leaders.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Vatican's health care office, told Mexican TV he was "about to die".

"I talked to the doctors and they told me there is no more hope," the Mexican cardinal said.

The Pope's condition deteriorated on Thursday after he developed a urinary tract infection that later brought on "septic shock and a cardio-circulatory collapse".

He was given the Catholic sacrament for the sick and dying - called the Anointing of the Sick.

Heading for Rome

Having refused to return to the Gemelli hospital where he was treated last month for breathing difficulties, he is being treated in his apartment by a team of four top consultants and his private doctor, Renato Buzzonetti.

May his successor be as principled and as much a force for good as this man has been, but with the ability to adapt his dogma to the realities of a suffering world

Rosemary, Copenhagen, Denmark Pope's illness: Your views The Vatican said he remained "fully conscious and extraordinarily serene" on Friday and was following prayers.

Cardinals in the United States and Latin America have indicated they are preparing to travel to Rome.

John Paul II's eventual successor will be elected in a secret vote at the Vatican's famed Sistine Chapel by the cardinals - the "princes" of the Christian world's largest Church.

Prayers for the Pope have also been offered by other religions: Jews in Jerusalem and Muslims in Indonesia.

The Communist authorities in Cuba allowed the Church leader there, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, to make a rare statement on television.

"A great man is dying," he said in the six-minute address. "This is a man who has carried the moral weight of the world for 26 years... turning himself into the only moral reference for humanity in recent years of wars and difficulties."

Many view the undermining of Communism in Roman Catholic countries of Eastern Europe as one of the Polish pontiff's main achievements.

Special report live from CBS News at the Vatican

(This is a rough transcript of the CBS news conference with the Italian translator and Vatican representative)

Substantially and varied (blood values?) very serious very grave

We hope to serve ... earlier initial state of consciousness AT 7:30 a.m. we celebrated of Mass with the Pope he is breathing, labored or slightly...

Pope had in mind young people...

This is difficult ...

Pope seemed to refer to young people when he repeatedly seemed to say "I've been looking for you and now you've come to me... "

We've been able to reconstruct what he said, this is what he said.

We have this update now for you until this evening...

I cannot confirm the particular rumors ... (inaudible)

Probably around 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. we will have another update for you...

He is not in a coma.

When we speak to him he opens his eyes.

He seems to be receptive.

We are not talking about coma here.

Question from media: Who is always present with the Pope?

Answer: Monsignor (inaudible) the other Secretary to the Holy Father the three Nuns of the Holy Father, his personal physician.

Thank you very much and we will see you later.

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