Pope delights faithful in St Peter's Square

Days after some cardinals gave dire descriptions of his health, Pope John Paul II led a long and lively ceremony today to give the Catholic Church new saints.

He even capped the appearance with a spin in a “popemobile” around St Peter’s Square, waving to tens of thousands of cheering well-wishers.

The 83-year-old pontiff’s Parkinson’s disease has progressed over the last few years, making it increasingly difficult for him to speak and virtually impossible to move about unaided.

He chanted several prayers in a loud, clear voice, greeted a long line of VIPs one by one and watched with attention as African and Asian dancers performed in honour of the three missionaries he raised to sainthood.

Only later did he begin slurring his words.

Earlier in the week, some unusually frank assessments by senior churchmen heightened alarm over his deteriorating condition.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn’s words that the pope is in his dying days and months were a shocking departure from the reserve that had long marked public talk by prelates.

Until relatively recently, top churchmen would not even publicly acknowledge that the pontiff had Parkinson’s, despite evident symptoms like hand tremors, stiff facial muscles and stooped posture.

One of his closest aides, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, remarked last month that the pope was poorly and needed to save his strength.

Toward the end of the ceremony, John Paul looked relieved when he made it through a long stretch of text.

Earlier, he read most of his homily but let a Vatican official, German Cardinal Walter Kasper, read three paragraphs of German text.

John Paul said the ceremony highlighted the need for the “enthusiasm and apostolic passion” like that shown by the new saints: Daniele Comboni, an Italian, Arnold Janssen, a German, and Josef Freinademetz, an Austrian.

John Paul marks 25 years in the papacy this month. Besides several anniversary events, the pope has several other stamina-taxing appointments coming up, including the October 19 beatification of Mother Teresa and an October 21 ceremony to give the Church more cardinals, the electors who will eventually chose his successor.

Yesterday the pope met the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.