Health concerns as frail Pope stumbles over speech

Weary and trembling, Pope John Paul struggled to greet the faithful today as he began a gruelling four-day visit to Slovakia that was testing his age and ailments from the start.

The frail 83-year-old pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and crippling hip and knee ailments, appeared short of breath and read his arrival speech at Bratislava airport in a badly slurred voice.

Just one paragraph into the speech, he lost his place and asked that an aide read most of the rest before finishing the last paragraph himself, correcting himself several times for stumbling on words.

On other foreign visits, aides have read portions of his speeches for the pope, but never his arrival texts.

“Although the pope wanted to continue to read, I think it’s logical to ease his burdens,” papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said later. The pope will “absolutely” continue the trip, he said.

“I don’t see any real obstacle” to future travel, he said.

As he has in recent appearances, John Paul remained seated in a throne-like chair wheeled by aides. It took him 20 minutes to disembark from the papal plane.

Five thousand police officers and 500 special guards were deployed nationwide to secure the pope and his entourage during the trip, his third visit to the ex-communist country and the 102nd foreign pilgrimage of his papacy.

Reaching out to Slovakia, which joins the European Union next year, the pope touched on what has become a recurrent theme: a plea to Europeans to resist materialism and reaffirm traditional Roman Catholic family values.

“In the near future, your country will become a full member of the European community,” John Paul said.

The church in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation suffered intense persecution under communism, which ended in 1989, and its sufferings were sure to figure prominently in the pope’s visit.

Many priests were ordained in secret, and hundreds were imprisoned or sentenced to forced labour by a regime that confiscated all church property. This weekend, the pope will beatify as martyrs a bishop and a nun who were jailed and tortured in the 1950s.

Organisers said they expected up to half a million of the faithful from Slovakia and neighbouring countries to attend open-air papal Masses in the capital, Bratislava, the central city of Banska Bystrica and the eastern city of Roznava.