Pope given last rites
 

VATICAN CITY (CNN) -- Pope John Paul II's condition remained "serious" early Friday, but he appeared to be responding well to antibiotic treatment for a urinary tract infection that caused him to develop a fever, a Vatican official said.

Thursday night, as his health deteriorated, the pontiff was given the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church, a Vatican source told CNN.

The sacrament does not necessarily mean that the pope is dying. Last rites -- also known as the sacrament of the sick or extreme unction -- are commonly given to people who are seriously ill as well.

The pope received the sacrament after he was shot by a would-be assassin in 1981.

The pope is suffering from a high fever caused by a urinary tract infection, the Vatican confirmed earlier Thursday -- one day after revealing he had been put on a nasal feeding tube.

for full article

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/eu...pe1/index.html

It feels strange he may die soon. Pope John Paul II is only pope I ever known since I learned about being Catholic when I was little. It will be sad when he passes. It will be interesting to see a new election of the new pope though.

Doesn't look like His Holiness will be long for this world.

For those who want to know more about the election of a new Pope, I recommend reading the book by Morris West or watching the movie The Shoes of the Fisherman. When the book was written, it dealt with the election of a non-Italian Pope (the fictional Pope Kiril I was Ukrainian), then considered a long shot until Pope John Paul II was elected in 1978.

Does anyone know if his current state is also b/c of the recent respiratory issues he has been having?

I never knew a UTI could give you a fever that terrible :(

For starters, he has Parkinson's and age working against him. Any infection at all isn't good, but having both respiratory infections AND a UTI would work together against him.

I'm not catholic, and there are policies of His Holiness that I dont agree with, but this should be a bigger deal than what it is on the news right now. The pope has been given last rites and Super Idiot Larry King is rambeling on about Teri Schiavo. I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE TERI SCHIAVO CASE... THEN OR NOW. Hopefully now that shes gone, we wont have to hear about it anymore. I think all 270 million americans have been on CNN talking about it. I dont care what my fellow americans have to say, because 98% of them are complete f*cking morons. (work retail or at a theme park and you'll agree with me).

I'm normally a CNN kid, but this is rediculious. I havent been pleased with CNN's coverage decisons since they got rid of their News Division chief a few months ago. Examples:

1) The non-stop coverage of the Teri Schiavo issue.
2) Thelack of coverage of the popes health
3) The round the clock coverage of the murder of the judge in atlanta. That really made CNN look bad (like a local affilliate), terrified a lot of people unnecessarily, and honesty, if you didnt live there, it didnt really involve you. It was like CNN was only devoting that much coverage to it because it was happening in their backyard. Not what a worldwide leader in news should look like. Note the disparity in coverage between the 24 hour coverage of the judge shooting in Atlanta vs. the brief mention of the judges murder in Illinios a few weeks earlier.

/Hijack

The pope worked hard to end communism and it will be interesting to see the process of the new pope election. At least its a democratic process.

I wish I still had the links to the webpages I had found today concerning what happens once the Pope dies. I had known a few things, but I learned so much more. Google is a wonderful tool.

Unfortunately, I too don't think Pope John Paul II will be with us much longer. Besides the Parkinson's, he is dealing with some major medical issues. I had noticed that he had lost since he left the hospital, but had no idea that it was 40 pounds. No wonder they were feeding him through a NG tube.

But if anyone is going to fight, he is a fighter. Plus there is someone higher than him who is going to decide when his time will be. God Bless him! I will be one praying for him...

I can't believe he might actually die. Its going to be scary to see who becomes pope after John Paul's passing. Most feel that an italian will become pope, like Pius XII. I don't know how I feel right now. I have a lot of mixed emotions. I feel like the pope should have given up his papacy long ago when illness became a common thing. Yet, John Paul has done so much for the catholic religon. Even now at his age and in his condition he still inspires people of young age. The man has been through so much in his life and I personally have looked up to him in my youth. I may not be the best person in the world, but if at some point in my life I could be 1/8 of the man he is I would be content. The man is radical compared to Popes in the past. I don't know how many of you realize it or not....but until John Paul the popes believed women to be of lesser equal to men in a sense. The popes in the past looked at mary as a whore/prostitute and thus looked down on her and women in general. John Paul called her "a true inspiration" and looked up to her in a sense. People don't realize how radical that was for the church. I hope and pray that we have another pope that is at least half the man John Paul is. I don't know how many people on GC are Roman Catholic but I hope you're all praying right now for an easy passing for him.


-Cashmoney

Re: Pope given last rites
 

This will be the third Papal election that I remember, and it is interesting, even as a non-Catholic.

John-Paul II was a consumate communicator, whether you agree with his beliefs or not.

I've had the opportunity to do a lot of things during my career in TV production, but the most memorable by far was directing the international pool feed of a night time Papal prayer vigil/mass and another mass the next morning when the Pope was in Denver for World Youth Day. I don't expect anything I could ever do would be as moving.

A remarkable presence.

Post removed because in spite of the call for differing opinions to be tolerated, my opinion is not allowed.

So much for "open-mindedness" and "ecumenism" and "tolerance". Those of you who bashed me, try taking the log out of your own eye before taking the speck out of mine.

The rest of the post has been quoted elsewhere.

My own mourning doesn't belong on this board, I guess.

--add

Well I am RC. And what mark did I miss? If you don't care to discuss it here then please feel free to PM me.

All I can do is pray for him & pray for the future of the church. Like millions of others, when & if he goes, I'll be waiting for that white smoke.

ZTAngel, I have a couple:

Papal Election

The Leading Candidates

There are a lot more links from Yahoo, but those were the two which intrigued me.

I also recall 3 Papal elections. We had two elections in the same year in 1978, so the process was well publicized that year.

While the Pope is a religious leader for us Roman Catholics, he is a political leader in the world as well and does have an impact on those outside the faith. Since he has the longest run as Pope, many on this board remember no other.

Dee

Wrong Zeta. ;)

It will be weird to have a Roman Catholic Church without Pope John Paul II. I was baptized Catholic, but was pulled from the church at an early age and have only in the past few years begun to return to religion (I've gone to Episcopal services the past few years and will likely continue to for the rest of my life).

For that reason I won't comment on the Pope's policies or his works. All I will say is that I am hopeful that he will not suffer too long. With the number of medical issues he has, I can't imagine what kind of pain he must be experiencing.