travel plans because of his failing health. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters that the 82-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church will still go to Toronto, Canada, as planned in July, but that other stops in Mexico and Guatemala could be dropped.
"Toronto is clear. For the others, we shall see. No decision has been made yet, " the British Broadcasting Corporation quoted Navarro-Valls as saying. Previous papal trips postponed because of his ill health were a New York visit in 1994 after he broke his leg and a trip to Armenia in 1999, when he contracted a flu, church watchers said.
SUFFERING
The announcement came a day after Bulgaria’s Orthodox leader, Metropolitan Simeon, noted that the Pope "suffered like Christ," because of his poor health, and urged the Vatican to tell him to stop working.
Journalists traveling with him in Bulgaria said he looked fatigued and that one hand shook uncontrollably as his head often slumped during his final event in Bulgaria — a meeting with Catholic youths in the Balkan country’s second-largest city, Plovdiv, on Sunday, May 26.
"LAST TRIP"
Apparently referring to his health problems and own mortality, he told his young audience that this would "probably be" his "last trip to Bulgaria" and that "tomorrow belongs to the youth."
Earlier in Plovdiv, the Pope attended an open air mass with an estimated 20,000 people, where he beatified three Roman Catholic priests executed in 1952 by the previous Communist regime on charges of spying for the Vatican.
The three, Kamen Vichev, Iosafat Shishkov and Pavel Dzhidzhov, were buried in a common grave and their bodies have never been found, according to experts. Eye-witnesses said security at the mass was extremely tight with police sharp-shooters stationed all around the square.
BULGARIA CLEARED
During the trip, the pontiff also cleared Bulgaria of any link to a 1981 attempt to assassinate him by telling the Bulgarian president he never "believed there was any Bulgarian involvement" in a plot to kill him, as suggested by the gunmen.
In addition he paid tribute to Bulgaria’s Orthodox culture, repeating his desire for Christian unity and an end to the long-standing divide between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism that have lasted for nearly one thousand years.
The Pope said Sunday that his landmark three day visit of "reconciliation and hope" would in his words "be a good sign for (mainly Orthodox) Bulgaria." Despite his poor health, the Pope also hopes to visit Russia.
RUSSIAN RIFT
However church experts say a rift with the Russian Orthodox Church has made such a trip impossible at this time. The Moscow patriarchy has reportedly accused the Catholic Church of trying to convert Orthodox believers to Catholicism.
A clearly tired and weak Pope John Paul II reportedly arrived at the Vatican late Sunday, May 26.
