Austrian Cardinal Says Pope Nearing Death

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn is the latest high-ranking Vatican official to say that Pope John Paul II is nearing death:

“The whole world is experiencing a pope who is sick, handicapped and dying — I don’t know how close to death he is — who is approaching the last days and months of his life,” Schoenborn told Austrian radio.

Later Schoenborn’s spokesman, Erich Leitenberger, said the comment was meant “to be seen philosophically” and should not be interpreted literally.

Schoenborn, head of the Catholic Church in Austria and archbishop of Vienna, is seen as a possible successor to the pope, who celebrates the 25th anniversary of his pontificate later this month.

Earlier on Thursday, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope’s long-term personal secretary, said recent comments by another senior cardinal about the pope’s condition had been taken out of context.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, an influential German prelate who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was quoted as saying by German magazine Bunte that the pope was “in a bad way.” He called on the faithful to pray for the pope.