Pope is 'in a bad way,' says one of his closest advisers

POPE John Paul is "in a bad way," one of his closest advisers was quoted as saying in an interview yesterday that was a rare break with Vatican ranks.

"He is in a bad way, we should pray for the Pope," German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told the magazine Bunte, which said its correspondent spoke with him at the Vatican on September 22. The Polish-born Pontiff, who was elected as Pope in 1978, is 83 and suffers from Parkinson's disease.

Cardinal Ratzinger's comments to some degree merely stated the obvious, although they did raise some concern that the Pope's frail health might have deteriorated beyond what has been publicly announced and visible to all.

The Vatican, for example, announced that the Pope came down with an intestinal ailment on September 23 which caused him to skip his weekly general audience a day later.

Asked whether Cardinal Ratzinger's description indicated any change in the Pope's condition, the Vatican press office noted that John Paul would resume the general audience today.

The Pope will also celebrate a Mass on Sunday on the steps of St Peter's Basilica to raise three Churchmen to sainthood. Canonisation ceremonies generally last about two hours.