Weather, rigors of travel kept Pope away

Pope John Paul II is not coming to the Philippines for the fourth World Meeting of Families in January 2003 because his frail health may give out due to the weather and the distance.

"It is winter in Rome in January and when he comes to Asia, it will be tropical. (This) would be a very difficult adjustment for an elderly man like the Holy Father," Manila Auxiliary Bishop Socrates Villegas, spokesman for Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, said.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said on Aug. 12 that "the Pope’s desire to go to the Philippines is well known."

Despite this, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano advised Sin in a letter that the Pope would not attend the World Meeting of Families for health reasons, and because the distance the Pontiff would have to travel for a relatively short appearance would be too taxing for him.

Villegas admitted that the Pope’s absence from the World Meeting of Families could dampen the participants’ mood and reduce attendance at the event.

"I am sure the attendance would be affected. There is only one Pope and he has always been a magnet to attract people in terms of participation," Villegas said.

On the other hand, Ville-gas said the Pope’s absence could also give Filipino Ca-tholics other opportunities and challenges.

"It would be an opportunity to express our faith and we will (do our best to) show the world that even if he does not come, we will fulfill the role he has entrusted the Filipinos — to become evangelizers by way of family," he said.

The most traveled Pope in history suffers from knee and hip ailments and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, including slurred speech and hand tremors.

The Pope’s frail health has even sparked speculations that he may curb his travels or resign altogether. While the Pope has said he does not intend to resign, he has scaled down his participation in Vatican religious ceremonies and this year decided to stay at his summer retreat in the hills southeast of Rome rather than travel back to the Vatican every Wednesday for his weekly audience.

His condition has led some Vatican officials, including Sodano, to publicly question whether he can continue his rigorous travel schedule, which has included some 98 foreign trips since he ascended to the Papacy in 1978.

Most recently, the Pope took Sodano’s advice and skipped scheduled stops in Guatemala and Mexico in July that were to follow the World Youth Day festivities in Toronto that the Pope attended.

However, the Pontiff also went on with other scheduled trips against Sodano’s counsel: A four-day visit to his homeland, Poland, that wrapped up last week and a grueling 11-day American tour. On these trips, the Pope seemed more invigorated than he had been in months.

While the cancellation of the Pope’s Manila trip is "understandable," a Vatican source said, this "doesn’t mean that the Pope is stopping his travels."

Vatican officials said a visit to nearby Croatia is being planned in the next few months, as well as a possible visit to the former Soviet state of Belarus.

Sodano’s letter was unusual in that it was delivered more than five months before the Manila family meeting — a clear indication that the Vatican wanted to quash expectations before they rose too much.

The World Meeting of Families is an international religious conference focusing on family values scheduled for Jan. 22-26, 2003.

Preparations for what would have been John Paul II’s third papal visit to the Philippines and his fourth trip to the country were already underway when Sodano’s letter arrived in Manila. Church officials had already begun meeting with police officials to discuss security issues.

Added to this, the first of three planned prayer rallies to pray for the Pope’s health so he could come to Manila drew about 10,000 people on Aug. 14. - With AP