World News 01-04-2005 The Pope`s Final Hours who: Pope John Paul II what: Suffers heart failure where: Vatican City when: Thursday night snippet: Pope John Paul II was "very gravely ill" on Friday after suffering a heart attack on Thursday night. The 84-year-old Pontiff "told close aides he does not want to go to hospital," says The Evening Standard. "Instead he continued to receive treatment at his apartments. A mass was held for him with close aides and he was described as `lucid and tranquil`." "I would want everyone to join with me in prayers for him as he very bravely meets his last hours and days with serenity, calm and peace and for all that we give thanks to God," said Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O`Connor, quoted in The Guardian. It was reported on Thursday night that the Pontiff had received the Last Rites from his private secretary, Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, although, as The Scotsman`s Rome correspondent Jeremy Charles explains, the Church no longer uses the phrase "Last Rites" to describe the viaticum. "The sacrament, which involves anointing the sick person with special oils, was once called `extreme unction`," he says. "It was renamed the Sacrament of the Infirm to reflect the fact that it is administered not only to the dying but to the sick as well." Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Catholic leader had suffered septic shock and cardio-circulatory collapse following a urinary tract infection. "The Pope has long suffered from declining health, which took a serious turn this year when he was admitted to hospital with flu," recalls The Telegraph. "He was later readmitted with a relapse. He has been convalescing for more than a month since throat surgery to help with breathing difficulties but had lost the use of his voice and failed to make the hoped for recovery. He is said to have lost 42lb in weight." "If a pontiff dies," explains The Guardian, "cardinals from around the world are called to Rome to choose a successor at a conclave which starts in the Vatican`s Sistine Chapel 15 to 20 days after the death." [... more]

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