On Friday, pilgrims interviewed as they streamed out of St. Peter's Square appeared generally persuaded that the pope was in his last days. "He's not only the representation of the church, he is also human, and it's clear he's not doing well," said Katia Campanella, 36, from Bolzano, Italy.
At age 84, the pope is manifesting typical signs of advanced Parkinson's disease. The throat is constricted, and muscles stop functioning properly. For at least two years, he has struggled with his breathing.
People hold candles as Pope John Paul II is seen from the rear on a giant screen during the Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum.
(Massimo Sambucetti -- AP)
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Video: Pope John Paul II's absence was keenly felt by worried followers around the world as poor health forced him to miss major Holy Week events
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Weight loss, evident in his increasingly gaunt appearance, hints at problems swallowing food. One means of alleviating that would be to feed him through a stomach tube -- the procedure used with Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of an intense legal battle in the United States.
There is no indication such a procedure is contemplated for the pope. "Each alternative is useful up to a point, but you can't stop the disease. It can be slowed down but not cured," Corrado Manni, a former papal physician, said in an interview.
It is unusual, but not unprecedented, for a pope to use his own impending death as a teaching tool. According to Catholic tradition, St. Peter, the first pontiff, asked his Roman persecutors to crucify him upside down, saying he did not deserve to be killed in the manner of Jesus.
At other times, ailing popes have been shown to the faithful to prove they were still alive. In 1227, aides of Pope Honorius III carried him to a window at the Basilica of St. John Lateran "exhausted and half-alive," according to a contemporary account, to display him to a crowd that had gathered thinking he was dead.
The ups of John Paul II's recent condition have been publicized, but not necessarily the downs. At Gemelli, when he made a surprise appearance at his window one day, a Vatican photographer was there to record it. When he left the hospital 12 days ago to return to the Vatican, a mini-camera took shots over his shoulder. In two broadcast appearances this week, his face showed pain.
Friday, his face was absent from the television screen.
