Sick Pope

P: "In this condition I cannot be Pope. It is better that I die."

P: "Passion of Christ, comfort me! Patience of Christ, support me!"

P:"I am glad to suffer so much on the day of Our Lord's Nativity."

P:"Don't let me suffer more than it is God's will."

P:. "We have seen New Year's but we will never see Easter."

P:"I wish no more doctors. One doctor is sufficient to kill a man."

P:"I am much uplifted tonight."

P: "The Pope must not be sick or old, because the Church would suffer."

Credited with having uttered the foregoing statements, and many more besides, during the five weeks he had lain abed, Pope Pius XI ended last week feeling fairly comfortable. Day after day the world Press had had the Holy Father about to die, but not until last week did the Vatican issue an official statement of his condition. In contrast to the vague "Vatican Voices" of anonymous prelates to whom newshawks attributed contradictory stories, the statement in precise terms detailed the Pope's ailments as: "a diffuse process of arteriosclerosis, with prevalent localization in a lowering of the heart's functions and consequent disturbance of the cardiac rhythm." In what most doctors decided was an understatement of the fact that the Holy Father will probably not recover, the statement concluded: "There is reason to hope that [the] local complaints may continue gradually to improve and even be completely removed, whereas the heart condition counsels a certain prudence of judgment owing to the very nature of the illness and the patient's age."

The ineffable patient of the Vatican's Dr. Aminta Milani has proved a difficult one. Long known to be gruffly impatient of other people's illnesses, so that wise underlings kept out of his sight when ailing, Pius XI resolutely declined to undergo a thorough physical examination. He not only was shocked at the idea of appearing naked before anyone but even balked at having his pulse counted, until lately Dr. Milani managed to excite his interest in the technique of this simple operation. One story ladled out last fortnight by the "Vatican Voices" was that for no less than three months the Pope and his ancient valet Giovanni Malvestiti kept secret his varicose veins, treating them with "home remedies."

Had U. S. Catholics read nothing but their diocesan papers in recent months they would have heard precious little of their Holy Father's declining health until it began making secular front pages daily. Stubbornly denying until recent weeks that the Pope's ailments were at all serious, Vatican functionaries set up a censorship of telephone calls, the word always perforce being: "The Pope is well." When the Pope learned at Christmas time what was being printed about him, he ex- claimed: "I must get up, sit on the sedia gestatoria and bless the pilgrims." Last week when few doctors could find any reason for long-term optimism, word went out that the Pope plans to address by radio the 33rd International Eucharistic Congress in Manila Feb. 7.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.