Frail Pope May Have to Scale Back Travel

As Pope John Paul II concluded an arduous five-day trip to Azerbaijan and Bulgaria on Sunday, the Vatican indicated that the increasingly frail pope’s health may force him to cut back on foreign trips.

The pontiff, who is scheduled to visit Canada, Mexico and Guatemala in July, may drop Mexico and Guatemala from the itinerary, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters here.

“Toronto is clear,” Navarro said. “In Toronto, there will be the World Youth Day. As far as the others are concerned, we’ll see. No decision has been made yet.”

John Paul, 82, suffers from Parkinson’s disease. He read only portions of his speeches and appeared extremely weak throughout his trip, although he managed to preside Sunday over a two-hour Mass on in this city’s main square.

At the morning Mass, which was attended by thousands of worshipers, he beatified three Roman Catholic priests executed by Bulgaria’s former Communist government on trumped-up spying charges in 1952.

Kamen Vichev, Iosafat Shishkov and Pavel Dzhidzhov, all put to death by firing squad in a prison in the capital, Sofia, were declared martyrs of the Catholic faith. Beatification is the last step before possible sainthood.

Before returning to Rome on an evening flight, John Paul visited a Catholic church in Plovdiv where a gathering of youths gave him the most enthusiastic welcome of his trip.

The gathering at St. Ludwig Catholic Church had a bittersweet quality. Wildly cheering youths shouted: “Holy Father, we are with you! We love you!”

John Paul was animated, waving and smiling, and besides reading part of his speech in Bulgarian--with the rest delivered by an aide--he ad-libbed in several languages. He also led group singing, bursting out with a relatively strong voice in the first few words of familiar songs that were then taken up by the others present.

His weakness, however, was obvious.

John Paul has said that he wants to continue his papacy rather than resign, as some cardinals have suggested. But he gave an indication Sunday that he recognizes limits to how long he will be able to carry on. He told the youths, through a translator, that he didn’t know if he would ever be able to come back to Bulgaria.

He then added: “It’s good to be able to meet young Bulgarians at the end of my papacy. It is you to whom tomorrow belongs.”

Antoni Bohdanowicz, 16, a British and Polish citizen who was part of a school group from Warsaw that attended the event, said it left him “just so sad” to see the pope’s condition and hear his words.

“He said, ‘Farewell,’ and it seemed not ‘Farewell, Bulgaria,’” but something more, Bohdanowicz said. “There’s pressure rising on him to resign. I think he shouldn’t. Although he’s lost his speech--he can’t speak properly--he’s still got great wisdom.”

Maria Zaikova, 20, who is studying to become a nun, was among those who welcomed John Paul at the church. She said she believes he should keep up his traveling.

“I think he should keep pushing until his last minute,” Zaikova said. “The reason he’s here on Earth is to serve God, and God will give him all the powers he needs to keep going.”

In an echo of the message of the morning Mass and its beatification of the clergymen, John Paul cited to the youths the biblical passage “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.”

“This statement can seem difficult and in some cases can even be frightening,” he added. “But I ask you: Is it better to resign yourself to a life without ideals, to a society marked by inequality, oppression and selfishness, or rather to seek with a generous heart what is true, good and just, working to build a world which shows forth the beauty of God?”

In his homily at the morning Mass, John Paul cast the beatification of the three clergymen in the context of his drive for better relations and eventual unity between the Catholic and Orthodox faiths.

“In thinking of the three ... I also feel duty-bound to honor the memory of the other confessors of the faith who were sons and daughters of the Orthodox Church and who suffered martyrdom under the same Communist regime,” he said. In his departure address at Plovdiv airport, John Paul came back to this theme.

“Not so long ago, both Catholics and Orthodox underwent harsh persecution for their fidelity to the Gospel,” he said. “May so many sacrifices make the witness of Christians in this country bear much fruit and, with the grace of God, may they hasten the day when we shall be able to rejoice in the rediscovered fullness of unity among us!”

Antonia Remmeke, 27, a Bulgarian woman married to a German who was back in her country on a family visit, said that she had seen John Paul at youth events in other countries but that his appearance here touched her far more.

“This is a special gift to me, to hear him speaking to me in Bulgarian,” Remmeke said. “He’s a very old man. His hands tremble, and his voice is not that strong. He’s a weak, weak old man. But in his weakness I see God.”