Frail pope set on staying put

Happy birthday, John Paul - but he could step down

By BBC News Online's Alex Kirby

Pope John Paul, born on 18 May 1920, has endured more than many octogenarians, and has a workload few would envy.

He is ill, showing the signs of Parkinson's disease, a degenerative condition, and the effects of the 1981 assassination attempt and several major operations.

His mental health remains undimmed, though, and he could leave office to enjoy his remaining days in a monastery in his beloved Poland.

Yet John Paul, far from abdicating, appears determined to soldier on until he drops.

Other popes have abdicated, and there is no church law to prevent this one doing so. Last January a German bishop suggested the pope should leave office if he no longer felt up to it.

A birthday blessing for the faithful

But a Catholic official told BBC News Online the idea was inconceivable: "For the pope to abdicate is incredible. I doubt if it's even occurred to him.

""And to suggest that the church is in terrible crisis if the pope isn't being active is absurd. If for a few months he does nothing at all, the church will go on perfectly happily as usual.

"People are always suggesting he's now so frail that there's a power vacuum in the Vatican.

"Obviously a number of cardinals are extremely influential - it goes with their jobs. But there's no identifiable group that's taken over the running of the church."

'Totalitarian'

The idea that John Paul should release himself from the burden of his office does have its supporters, though.

Valerie Stroud is a member of a Catholic reform group, We Are Church, and used to admire the pope in the early days of his papacy.

She told News Online: "He's now become extremely conservative, and the Catholic church today is a totalitarian society.

The pope "would not think of going"

"There's no listening, no opportunity to question anything. They're just not addresssing the concerns of millions of the faithful.

"All the same, I think it's tragic to be part of an institution which demands that a venerable old man just goes on and on and on.

"There's nothing to stop him abdicating except his own belief that he's in the job till death.

Ineffective

"And we're not doing him or the church any good by colluding with that belief.

"He can function effectively now for a couple of hours a day, and running the church takes far more than that.

"How many of the documents does he even see? Power is quite definitely now in the hands of Vatican officials."