Aging Pontiff shows he is young of heart

AFTER wowing 400,000 adoring young people with extraordinary stamina for a man his age, Pope John Paul rested on Friday ahead of the main events this weekend at the Roman Catholic Church's global youth jamboree.

“This is a case of the soul dragging the body,” said papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

Since he arrived in Toronto on Tuesday the 82-year-old Pope has shown unusual resilience despite his sometime frail health due to Parkinson’s disease and severe arthritis.

The stamina of the leader of some one billion Roman Catholics was most evident on Thursday night at the official welcoming ceremony for World Youth Day, which has attracted young Catholics from some 170 nations.

He enthralled the huge crowd by reading all of his address in a clear voice in English and French, and reading greetings in a number of other languages as the audience sang and danced.

The crowd was the biggest to date during his 97th trip overseas, which will also take him to Guatemala and Mexico next week.

At a briefing for reporters, Navarro-Valls said the Pope's condition was largely attributable to the rest his aides have inserted in his schedule.

Three of his first four days in Canada have been rest days, largely to allow him to recover from jet lag.

Navarro-Valls said this may be the model for future papal trips but it would be difficult to impose rest on the Pope at the Vatican because of his many commitments.

He said John Paul's apparent reinvigoration was not due to any change in medication for his Parkinson's disease.

The Pontiff’s better than anticipated health has delighted his Canadian hosts and the crowds of young people, who had been expecting to see a frailer, weaker man.

Later on Friday the Pope was to host a simple lunch for 14 young people representing five continents at his retreat on Strawberry Island north of Toronto on Lake Simcoe, which residents have dubbed “The Holy Sea.”

At the big opening ceremony on Thursday night on the shores of Lake Ontario, the Pope referred to himself an old man with a young heart and told the crowd that material pleasure was no match for spiritual happiness.

“Dear young people, many and enticing are the voices that call out to you from all sides: many of these voices speak to you of a joy than can be had with money, with success, with power. Mostly they propose a joy that comes with the superficial and fleeting pleasure of the senses,” he said.

He referred to the events of September 11, saying that last year humanity had seen “the tragic face of human malice” and what can happen “when hatred, sin and death take command.”

World Youth Day festivities, which culminate on Sunday, are the Roman Catholic Church's main international jamboree for young people, sometimes called a Catholic Woodstock after the 1969 US rock music festival.

The celebrations, which take place every two years in a different country and are always attended by the Pope, aim to give like-minded Catholic youths a chance to mingle.