Pope's trip may be cancelled over health fears

The Vatican acknowledged for the first time today that it may have to curtail papal travel because of Pope John Paul II’s feeble condition, suggesting that planned stops in Mexico and Guatemala in July could be dropped.

Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters the 82-year-old Pope will go to Toronto to mark the Roman Catholic Church’s World Youth Day, but suggested the other stops on the proposed 11-day trip could be cancelled.

‘‘Toronto is clear. For the others, we shall see,’’ Navarro-Valls said. ‘‘No decision has been made yet. Everything that has been confirmed is confirmed.’’

But he added: ‘‘Something that has been confirmed can be unconfirmed.’’

Until now, the only papal trips postponed because of the Pope’s ill health were a 1994 visit to New York after the pontiff broke his leg and a trip to Armenia in 1999, when he came down with the flu.

As recently as Saturday, the Vatican had insisted that no changes would be made to the travel schedule despite persistent questions about his ailing health and flagging strength.

Today, John Paul’s hands trembled and his voice was heavily slurred - symptoms of Parkinson’s disease - as he wound up a stamina-testing four-day trip to Bulgaria. Throughout his visit, the pontiff has been wheeled around on a special cart.

As he has throughout the Bulgarian visit and his first stop in Azerbaijan, he read only a portion of his homily, turning it over to a priest to finish.

The Pope honoured three Catholic priests killed by Bulgaria’s former communist regime, finding bonds with Orthodox Christians in their joint suffering during the Cold War.

He was driven from Sofia to the city of Plovdiv in southern Bulgaria for an open-air Mass in a central square attended by some 20,000 people.

Security was particularly tight, with sharpshooters on rooftops and windows of buildings overlooking the square covered.

The 82-year-old Pope sat slumped in a white chair on the altar, looking feeble and weak.

Beside him stood two Orthodox church officials who had accepted his invitation, an encouraging sign for the Vatican, which has been seeking closer contacts as part of efforts to heal the millennium-old rift between Catholics and Orthodox believers.

John Paul beatified Kamen Vichev, Iosafat Shishkov and Pavel Dzhidzhov, all executed by firing squad in a Sofia prison in 1952, declaring them martyrs of the Roman Catholic faith.

Beatification is the last step before possible sainthood.

They were close to Evgeni Bosilkov, Bulgaria’s Catholic leader at the time, who was sentenced to death in the same trial. The Pope beatified Bosilkov five years ago.

The pope said he felt ‘‘duty bound’’ also to honour the memory of Orthodox Christians ‘‘who suffered martyrdom under the same communist regime’’.

‘‘This tribute of fidelity of Christ brought together the two ecclesial communities in Bulgaria, even to the supreme witness,’’ the Pope said in his homily.

He said the three martyred priests were models for Christians today, especially young people ‘‘who are looking to give meaning to their lives’’.

The visit to Bulgaria was John Paul’s latest to a series of predominantly Orthodox countries, but he has so far been rebuffed in attempts to travel to Russia.

Relations have been tense with the Orthodox leadership in Moscow, which has accused the Vatican of seeking to expand its influence in traditionally Orthodox lands.

Before announcing that papal travel might have to be cut back, the Vatican had said earlier today that it was encouraged by the Orthodox church’s reception of the Pope in Bulgaria, and expressed optimism that it could lead to a meeting between John Paul and Russian Patriarch Alexy II.

‘‘The Pope expects that sooner or later he will meet with Alexy. We hope sooner,’’ Navarro-Valls said.

Plovdiv, about 100 miles south-east of the capital, Sofia, is Bulgaria’s second-largest city and home to most of the country’s small community of 80,000 Catholics.

Although the nation of 8 million is overwhelmingly Orthodox, small crowds of cheering admirers have greeted the pontiff at all of his stops.

Onlookers cheered and waved small Bulgarian flags as the bulletproof ‘‘popemobile’’ carried the pontiff to Plovdiv’s central square, decorated with a Vatican emblem created from 100,000 flowers. It was the first-ever visit by a pope to Bulgaria.