Religious Ledgies: Pray for the Pope
 

Guys, I know some of you dont care for religion at all, but lets keep this thread simply for prayers and things of that nature. Thanks! I appreciate it.


ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Pope John Paul II was taken to a hospital late Tuesday with an acute respiratory infection, hours after aides announced he was suffering from the flu, the Vatican said.

He was taken urgently to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic about 11 p.m. to have his infection examined further. The pope has been treated at that hospital in the past, but a rushed trip late at night is unusual.

Vatican sources said the 84-year old pontiff was undergoing a round of tests, including X-rays, so that doctors can determine the seriousness of the infection.

He has not been placed in the intensive care unit, the sources said.

The pope's Vatican doctors decided to send him to the hospital after his symptoms worsened, sources said.

Earlier Tuesday, the Vatican said the pontiff had canceled his public and private meetings for the next few days, including his general audience on Wednesday, due to a bout with influenza.

"The pope joined the millions of Italians who have caught the flu," chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

The decision to clear the pontiff's calendar came a day after the pope was forced to cancel his Monday meetings. At the time, the Vatican said John Paul had a mild fever.

Before the pope was taken to the hospital, Vatican sources said there was no reason for concern.

They said the cancellations were made to give advance warning to the thousands of pilgrims who gather in St. Peter's Square each week to get a glimpse of the pope.

The pope last appeared in public Sunday. His voice was hoarse, but he appeared to be in good spirits.

His health has been relatively steady in recent months, and he looked in better health than during the summer and fall of 2003, when trips to Croatia and Slovakia appeared to take a heavy toll on the frail pontiff.

The last time health problems forced him to cancel an event was September 2003, when he was suffering from a intestinal ailment.

The pope suffers from a number of chronic ailments, including Parkinson's disease. He has survived an assassination attempt and undergone nine operations -- including a hip replacement.

The weather in Rome has been uncharacteristically cold the past few weeks, and Italian health officials had warned of a flu outbreak.

I have already got my rosary out to pray for The Holy Father!

Well, I will, because it is sad when anyone is sick and feeling bad. I have a picture of my great aunt with the Pope. She's the only staunchly catholic member of my fam., Italian/Irish though both sides be.
Such a sweet, loving lady - I'll always remember going to midnight mass with her and singing my beloved classical christmas songs - and the beauty of that church and ceremony, and the magic of Christmas there.
I send him my blessings, though i don't agree with the church's policies. :nod: I hate to see anyone suffering and in pain.

I hate to see anyone in pain and suffereing too - but ya know the guy's what? 900 years old now? I mean come on, he's lived his life....

Personally - all my praying energy is going to my mom's best friend in the world who is dying before her eyes of stomach/esophagus cancer....it's a horrible horrible situation - but the angry part of me could care less about the Pope in the midst of what she is going through....

I know, I feel you. There are millions of more sufferers - he's had a full life. Sorry about your mom's best friend. :(
But - I'm having residual empathy for my great aunt Mary, who I love... :shrug: and who would care about this.
My prayers are with your mom's BF, too, Deanna. I hope she pulls through.. :o

Thanks - it's really rough - and it's hard being so far away - but my mom and I had a good cry on the phone together - this is just really tearing her apart - poor thing....and I know that with all the pain and suffering in the world...sometimes death is actually not a bad thing....the Pope seems half-dead all the time anyway....maybe it's just his time...:shrug: I'm in a seriously fould mood right now and already the "Catholic guilt" is seeping in like a plague upon me...:mad:

Thats terrible...I will keep your mom's best friend in my prayers.

Yeah I personally won't be praying for the pope (but I KNOW Dissention's already on his knees in a church begging to jesus to save the pope) I just personally don't care all that much. It's sad when anyone is dying, but didn't 150,000 people just recently die instantly too. And if the pope is supposedly god's right hand man isn't asking for prayers for him kind of like George W. Bush asking me to give the UN a call or something.

I'm sorry about your mom's friend. I will say a prayer for her and your mom. (((hugs)))

As for the Pope, he has been very frail and ill for quite some time. I pray he is at peace with himself and his life. I think there is good in him, though others will disagree and I certainly see where they're coming from. I hope he isn't in pain and will leave it at that.

I have enough respect for Alex not to foul-up his thread with my venom, but that made me laugh. :laugh:

Wow - then I must really be a foul mood...lol...coming in here and saying I could care less about the Pope....:sorry: there Alex....but I also just came from a press conference about a big old bus crash w/fatalities....bad night...bad night - so I am off to take some tylenol PM and just pass out for the evening :o

It still doesn't hurt to spare a little of your prayer time (if you are religious) to pray for a fellow human being, regardless.

I have a somewhat fatalistic view of death, too. But i know if it was my mom's best friend (my aunt cathy, who i love, and is one of my middle names) I would be heartbroken. It's good you can be there for your mom. :(
I don't think death is a bad thing -
and try not to get caught up in Catholic guilt - "it's a circle of deception, a hall of strangers"
If you, or the pope, are a good person, it will not matter, and "God" will love y'all... :xoxo:
Just stay strong and be there for your mom - you know you are a good person. :nod: (at least I think so! :xoxo: )

Thanks Amber :xoxo: - I just wish I could be there for her physically - but eh - you do what you can....

Catholic Guilt is a bitch - I have friends who haven't been Catholic in years - but STILL have the damn Catholic Guilt :laugh:

I try hard not to though....I just joke about it a lot - I'm actually shopping around for religions right now :laugh:


Anyway - now I will really go home and go to bed and as my hero Scarlett O'Hara says, "tomorrow is another day" :D :wavey:

Deanna...
 

Hope you feel better tomorrow Deanna.

I think it's one's personal relationship with God that matters most. Someone can go to church all the time and not have that.

Very true!

aww, Sweetie! Don't shop for religions! Just do what's in your heart, for now!
I know, I've heard Catholic guilt is a bitch - but my God don't do that! :laugh:
Since I know you're kinda Catholic, i would say - just do what Jesus would.
and if you are really shopping - I would say - Buddhism teaches that desire is inherintly - not spiritually fulfilling...and causes pain.. :p
and it's never bad too think of what Scarlett would do... :laugh:

Or Unitarian Universalists, who borrow from everyone. :nod:

yeah, that's a good one.! :D My super non religious friend went to one of those, for awhile.

4 hours ago Listen to Audio

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II had difficulty breathing as he battled the flu and will spend a few more days in the hospital, the Vatican confirmed Wednesday, but it said tests showed his heart was functioning normally and the pope had rested for several hours overnight.

The 84-year-old pontiff had "just a little fever," papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in elaborating on a terse medical bulletin issued by the Holy See. He told Vatican radio the pope would spend "a few more days" in the hospital, but added that there was "no cause for alarm."

John Paul was being treated Wednesday for respiratory problems in the Gemelli Polyclinic. He was rushed there late Tuesday from his Vatican apartment after coming down with influenza, Vatican officials said. No further medical bulletins were expected Wednesday, they said.

"The cardio-respiratory and metabolic levels at present are within the norm," the bulletin said.

The pope was being treated Wednesday for respiratory problems in the Gemelli Polyclinic. He was rushed there late Tuesday from his Vatican apartment, where he had been battling the flu for several days, Vatican officials said. No further medical bulletins were expected Wednesday, they said.

The papal spokesman said John Paul was taken by ambulance to the hospital after doctors decided "he could be better treated there than here (the Vatican)." In response to a reporter's question, Navarro-Valls denied that the pope lost consciousness, saying: "No, for God's sake!," and he ruled out any need for a tracheotomy.

Navarro-Valls said that as he was leaving the hospital Wednesday, the pope's secretary was celebrating Mass in the hospital room and that John Paul was concelebrating from his bed. Navarro-Valls said he didn't know whether the pope had eaten any breakfast.

He characterized Tuesday night's hurried admission to a special papal suite on the 10th floor of the hospital as "mainly precautionary" for the pope, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease. Trying to appear reassuring, Navarro-Valls even joked at one point that John Paul was taken by ambulance to the hospital because "the subway doesn't go that far."

John Paul was first examined in the emergency room before being taken to his hospital suite, Italian TV and news agency reports said.

Navarro-Valls, who has a medical degree, told The Associated Press early Wednesday that the pope has the flu and acute laryngeal tracheitis _ inflammation of the trachea, a breathing passage _ and had a "certain difficulty in breathing." He denied Italian news reports that John Paul had a CAT scan at the hospital or that he was taken to intensive care.

In a separate statement, the Vatican also said the pope had experienced a "larynx spasm crisis."

Tracheitis requires hospitalization and usually a breathing tube to keep the airway clear. The spasms are likely a complication from the respiratory illness the pope has had. It is possible his Parkinson's disease, which makes muscle control difficult, made it harder for him to breathe.

The first sign of the frail pope's illness came on Sunday, when he kept clearing his throat during a 20-minute appearance at his studio window, thrown wide open on one of Rome's most bone-chilling days in years so he could release a pair of doves symbolizing peace into St. Peter's Square.

Prayers for the pope were being said by faithful in churches around Rome, as well as in his native Poland.

"After we got the news we added a special prayer during our morning Mass," said Bishop Szczepan Wesoly, who presided at the service at the Polish church near Piazza Venezia in the center of the city attended by Polish nuns in black habits.

Security arrangements were among the tightest in memory at the hospital _ a Roman Catholic teaching institution about 2 1/2 miles from the Vatican _ where the pope has stayed some half-dozen times, starting in 1981 when he was critically injured by a gunshot wound to the abdomen in an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square.

When he was elected pontiff in 1978, John Paul was a robust 58-year-old with an athlete's physique who was serving as archbishop of Krakow in his native Poland, where he played soccer, skied and kayaked as a youth. Less than three years later, in May 1981, he suffered his first health crisis when he was shot by a Turkish gunman in the square.

Other serious medical problems requiring hospitalization included a bowel tumor, described by doctors as benign and removed in 1992, intestinal problems which led to the 1996 removal of his appendix and a 1994 broken thigh bone, fractured in a fall in his bathroom.

A close member of the pope's staff, American Archbishop James Harvey, said John Paul had congestion and a slight fever earlier Tuesday, apparently symptoms of a flu that Vatican Radio on Monday had described as mild.

Tuesday morning the Vatican announced that papal engagements including his weekly general audience on Wednesday was canceled.

Until the pope was taken to the hospital late Tuesday, the Vatican had been issuing reassuring news about his condition.

Harvey said the decision to hospitalize the pope was made by close aides in his apartment complex, who include his longtime Polish secretary.

The flu has been sweeping through Italy since December. The Rome region, shivering through nighttime subfreezing temperatures in an unusual cold spell, has been among the hardest-hit.

It was not known whether the pontiff had a flu shot.

I would pray for the...
 

Pope, But it is bad karma to wish luck on those on the opposing team :nod:

Or Vedanta which is a beautiful Indian philosophy which basically says we are all one and we are all divine. I don't know if there are other places like this, but this place is so wonderful, there is one in MA and one in CA:

http://www.vedantacentre.org

I haven't been there for a while but I want to get back because it is such a place of peace and love, and it is NOT a religion.

No one lives forever. That is nature (at least, in this reality). The Pope has been in ill health for quite some time. I will not wish it on him to suffer any longer.

My extended family just lost someone to that. He lived for six months after his diagnosis, had six children and was 45 years old. He was a pastor in the Lutheran church.
I send all my healing energy and strength to you and your friend and her mother. :angel:

When you gotta go, you gotta go! Just one more human being's lifespan ending...

For all those who are praying for the Pope, his conditions aren't preoccupying anymore. His prognosis is much better than yesterday, and the serious phase of his illness could be over in two-three days. He shouldn't stay in the hospital for more than a week.

Romy

Yes, I read it. I'm not that catholic, actually I dislike several things of the catholic church, and I even doubt about God (just doubt) but.. I like this guy. Don't know why but I like this Pope. When I saw him in Peru he was soo sweet, kind, he inspired peace and joy. I like him.

So I wish long live to him. Besides, according to San Malaquias prophecies, after this, there is only one more pope and then.. CAPUT!!!!

And isn't the next pope supposed to be evil or something? I don't know a lot about the prophecies - but I thought I'd heard something like that...

If you're thinking of the same guy I'm thinking of, he's already evil.

I wish him well.