VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II suffered heart failure and is in “very grave” condition, the Vatican said Friday.
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Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls choked up with tears as he told reporters about the pope’s worsening condition. He said the 84-year-old pontiff had been “informed of the gravity of his situation” and decided to remain in his apartment overlooking St. Peter’s Square, where thousands of pilgrims gathered to pray for him.
John Paul participated in Mass and received some top aides Friday morning, Navarro-Valls said.
“The pope is still lucid, fully conscious and extraordinarily serene,” Navarro-Valls said. He said the pope had unstable blood pressure and remained in “very grave” condition.
Among the top church officials who gathered at his bedside was Archbishop Paolo Sardi, the Vatican vice chamberlain who runs the Holy See between the death of a pope and the election of a new one.
Another visitor was Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the governor of Vatican City and former archbishop of Detroit, who said the pope was having trouble breathing.
“He was perfectly conscious,” Szoka told WXYZ-TV in Detroit. “He recognized me immediately, and I knelt by his bed and prayed for him. When I was leaving, I gave him a blessing and he tried to bless himself with his hand.”
Vatican: Pope in grave condition but lucid
