Pope celebrates birthday with gifts of sainthood

POPE John Paul II celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday carrying out one of his favourite tasks — creating new saints as role models for members of the Catholic Church.

Before thousands of faithful in St Peters Square, the white-haired pontiff elevated two fellow Poles and two Italians all founders of religious orders to sainthood.

The Mass was celebrated a day after a top Vatican official confirmed what many observers have long suspected that the Pope suffers from Parkinson's disease.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Head of the Congregation of Bishops Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said: "If we want to look for the secret weapon that has allowed him to beat the years and Parkinson's, we must look to prayer. He puts himself in the hands of God and feels God and the Madonna by his side in the path of life."

The Pope seemed in good spirits and spoke with a clear voice as he addressed the huge crowd spread out under bright summer sunshine. It was a marked contrast to his last birthday when he was so weak he could read out only a few lines of his speech which led to speculation he might retire.

But now, Vatican watchers believe he may be taking new drugs to tackle the Parkinson's disease.

They say he has also benefited from a rigorous new regime of physical and speech therapy.

Pope John Paul has created almost 470 new saints and beatified 1,316 people.

The four new saints were Virginia Centurione Bracelli, a 17th century Italian noblewoman; Maria de Mattias, a 19th century Italian nun; Jozef Sebastian Pelczar, a Polish bishop born in 1842 and Urszula Ledochowska, a Polish nun who founded schools and a religious order.