Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
'Inside the Vatican' Editor on Pope's Guatemala Trip
Aired July 30, 2002 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN, the pope in Guatemala. John Paul II is saying mass before a half-million people at this hour.
The Roman Catholic pontiff is canonizing a man fondly known in Guatemala as "Brother Pedro." The 17th century missionary dedicated his life to helping the poor. He is the first person elevated to sainthood in Central America.
The pope is also hailing the end of 36 years of civil war in Guatemala, urging the people there to "plant the seeds of hope," and "walk over the ashes of the past."
Now, the pope's health has been closely watched on this grueling trip, which has taken him from Canada, to Guatemala, and it will end Thursday in Mexico. The pope is 82 years old. We know he suffers from Parkinson's disease, as well as hip and knee problems. His frail condition has led to persistent speculation that John Paul II may step down. However, there has been some conflicting words about that particular topic.
Delia Gallagher is managing editor of "Inside the Vatican" magazine, and she joins us from Rome this morning, as she has from time to time when we cover the pope.
Good to see you again, Delia. How are you?
DELIA GALLAGHER, "INSIDE THE VATICAN": I am fine, thank you, Leon.
HARRIS: All right, let's talk last -- when last we talked, it was right before the pope took off on this long trip. And then we saw the couple of things that we did not expect to see, when we considered his health. We saw him walk off the plane, then we saw him walk his way back up steps onto the plane.
How did you read that message he was trying to send?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think it's the same message that he has been sending throughout these years of his difficulty with Parkinson's, which is that it's not going to hold him back, that he is determined to continue his trips, even though many people have advised him to stay at home and rest. It's clearly a message which is very strong in this papacy that the suffering is something that everybody must bear, and he is not going to let it stop him.
So the rumors of retirement and so on, he is not only continuing these trips in order to quell those rumors, but he has come out and said, I have no plans for retirement, in so many words.
HARRIS: Yes, but you know, he said that, and yet, and still these rumors, they keep surfacing. As a matter of fact, we have heard more of them in the last week or so than we have heard in a long time.
And let me ask you about one other thing, because in the climate of all of these rumors, we also noticed a couple of things, like for instance, he did not sign off at the World -- at the youth meeting that he was attending there in Canada by telling them that he would be back next year. Now, that's something he has always said when he has been with that gathering. He did not say that this time.
GALLAGHER: That he would see them in 2005 in Germany, that was next step for World Youth Day. But you know, the pope is getting old. He is old. So we can't expect that he is not going to make missteps every now and then. But I think on the whole, we can't go by any rumors other than what he himself has come out and said, which is that God will be the one to take away this duty from him. So we expect to see him remain as pope until his death.
HARRIS: And you expect that to happen? Is it that the pope believes that his mission is to actually die while he is on the road traveling the world as he has been doing?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think that's the feeling amongst those of us who have followed him, because that is what he believes that his mission is, that he is to continue this papacy until the very end, until God takes it away from him. Those were his words. So that is certainly our expectation.
HARRIS: Now, we know that he is there to canonize a couple of figures on his trip through Central America. Any idea about why it has taken the pope so long to get to that point in Central America? This will be the first time it's ever been done for a Central American figure.
GALLAGHER: Well, yes. It's important for Central America, it's important for Mexico when he canonizes Juan Diego. These are always signs of support to the indigenous people in Mexico or the people in Guatemala, when the pope comes to their country. He has visited, of course, several times already, both Guatemala and Mexico, so they are places.
But the canonization process is something which takes many years. And so the fact that we are now getting around to canonizing a saint from the 1500s or the 1600s gives you an idea of the amount of time that it takes to canonize, which has to go through a process here in the Vatican that the pope doesn't have anything to do with.
So he has come to those countries now to canonize as a support for the people of those countries and the people that follow these saints. HARRIS: All right, well, we thank you for joining us and helping us to follow the pope on his travels. Delia Gallagher in the Vatican this morning, always good to see you -- take care, friend.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
