Vatican Calls John Paul’s Condition ‘Very Grave’

Pope John Paul II suffered shock and momentary heart failure Thursday after developing high fever from a urinary tract infection and later received the Roman Catholic sacrament for the sick and dying, his spokesman said today.

“This morning the condition of the Holy Father is very grave,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a medical bulletin, describing sudden new health setbacks two days after disclosing that the 84-year-old pontiff was getting nutrition through a feeding tube.

Rather than return to the hospital, the pope had chosen to remain in his Vatican apartment, where he had been revived by a six-member medical team, put on antibiotics and provided with “all the appropriate therapeutic provisions and cardio-respiratory assistance,” the bulletin said.

This morning, John Paul participated in a 6 a.m. Mass, surrounded by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, and other top aides, Navarro-Valls said, adding that the pope was “conscious, lucid and serene.” The spokesman confirmed television reports that the pope had received the sacrament commonly known as last rites on Thursday evening, including the Holy Viaticum, Communion reserved for those close to death.

The mood among senior church officials was gloomy.

“He is approaching, as far as a person can tell, the end of his life,” Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, archbishop of Vienna, told the Austrian news agency APA.

The increasingly gaunt John Paul has been struggling to recover from a Feb. 24 tracheostomy that was performed to help him breathe.

Since leaving Gemelli Polyclinic hospital March 13, after two confinements totaling 28 days in two months, he has been unable to utter even the briefest of blessings.

The pontiff, who also suffers from Parkinson’s disease, missed Easter celebrations for the first time in his 26 years as leader of the world’s 1 billion Catholics.

Today’s official statement on the pope’s health was the third in as many days, after a silence of nearly three weeks.

Navarro-Valls issued a terse announcement Thursday of the pope’s urinary infection and fever. He said John Paul was being treated with “appropriate antibiotic therapy” while his condition was “closely watched” by his Vatican medical team.

Another bulletin came early this morning. After the urinary infection, Navarro-Valls said, the pope’s condition stabilized but later deteriorated. “A state of septic shock and cardio-circulatory collapse set in,” he said.

Dozens of faithful who had been following the pope’s health on television gathered for an informal vigil at the edge of St. Peter’s Square late Thursday, and they stayed hours past midnight. Some knelt on the cobblestones to recite the Hail Mary, its concluding words, “Pray for us now and at the hour of our death,” carrying a special poignancy.

“Whatever will happen will happen,” said Father Andrew Pietraszko, a parish priest from Miami who calls the Polish pope his hero. “It is part of life. We will have to accept it.”

Pietraszko, who was 7 years old and growing up in Poland when John Paul was elected pontiff in 1978, said, “He brought hope to us, especially in Eastern Europe.”

“Not just to Europe,” said Father Sylvester D’Cruz, who had brought a group of Miami high school students to Rome. “To everybody, to the whole world.”

Pietraszko and D’Cruz said they saw the pope in person for the first time on Easter Sunday, when he appeared at his apartment window above the square and blessed the crowd with the sign of the cross but failed in his attempt to speak.

In the square early today, both priests spoke of John Paul in the past tense, as if his reign was over.

“He was the people’s pope,” Pietraszko said.

Catholics around the world prayed for John Paul. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, returned several hours early from a week’s vacation at his cabin near Fresno to preside today at a Mass for the pope’s health. The Mass is to be said at 12:10 p.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

Police barriers kept the faithful and the curious out of St. Peter’s Square. Police cars and other vehicles were seen going in and out of the Vatican gates throughout the evening.

The Italian news agency ANSA quoted an emergency room official at Gemelli Polyclinic as saying there were no plans to readmit John Paul.

Navarro-Valls said it was the pope’s wish to stay in his quarters.

Several Italian media, citing unofficial Vatican sources, said the pope’s temperature had soared to about 104 degrees in the late afternoon and that his blood pressure had dropped precipitously in the evening.

A urinary tract infection can cause fever and a drop in blood pressure, as well as a frequent urge to urinate and a painful, burning sensation. Since John Paul also suffers from Parkinson’s disease, the infection would be likely to make him even more tired and shaky.

Such infections are often caused by an obstruction in the tract, such as a kidney stone, that allows bacteria to proliferate. In men, the obstruction also can be caused by an enlarged prostate gland.

The infection is typically curable with antibiotics. Symptoms often disappear within the first day, but physicians usually recommend continued treatment for a week or longer.

CNN and Sky Italia television first reported Thursday that John Paul had received the last rites sacrament. Catholic priests and Vatican specialists first interpreted the news cautiously, pointing out that the sacrament is given not only to Catholics about to die but also to sick patients who seek healing -- and can be given more than once.

“It underscores the gravity of the pope’s situation, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the end is imminent,” said George Weigel, an American theologian and biographer of John Paul, said Thursday.

But Navarro-Valls’ announcement today said the ritual included the Holy Viaticum, which Catholic doctrine says the church “offers those who are about to leave this life.” In Catholic teaching, the Communion host is the body and blood of Christ.

Father D’Cruz, standing vigil near St. Peter’s Square, said he was hopeful for the pope’s recovery because of his own first experience with the last rites sacrament as a young priest. He was called to the bedside of a man who he was told had just hours to live.

“He lived another 15 long years!” the priest recalled.

John Paul’s last appearance in public was Wednesday, when he tried but again failed to speak from his window.

The Vatican then canceled his public audiences until further notice and said he was being fed through a tube inserted in his nose to boost his strength.

Because of the Parkinson’s disease, the pontiff has had trouble swallowing, and Italian media reported this week that he was having trouble eating solid food.

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Times staff writers Larry B. Stammer and Thomas H. Maugh II in Los Angeles and special correspondent Candice Hughes in Rome contributed to this report.