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CNN Live Sunday

Pope's Travel Plans May Be Curtailed Due to Weak Health

Aired May 26, 2002 - 17:10   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Vatican officials say Pope John Paul II may have to cut back on his travels due to his frail health. The pontiff may drop Mexico and Guatemala from his scheduled trips to the Americas this summer, but the Vatican says there are no plans to cancel confirmed trips.

The pope just ended a visit to Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, but not without a difficult time. CNN's Alessio Vinci has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It took Pope John Paul II a lot of effort to complete the trip. During his final open- air mass in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city and home to this country's Catholic majority, he could barely keep his body up.

He can no longer walk unassisted, moving around on a platform, pushed by aides. His speech slurred and difficult to understand. As in the past few days, he could not muster the strength to read all of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) by himself.

(on camera): Vatican officials insist that the pope will continue to travel, despite his evident physical limitations. Next is a trip to Canada, Guatemala and Mexico at the end of July. Then in mid-August, he goes for the ninth time to his native Poland, and there is talk of yet another trip to Croatia in September.

(voice-over): This is the plan. However, Vatican officials also say the pope's traveling schedule could be curtailed, saying what is confirmed can always be unconfirmed.

But during this trip, the pope also appeared alert. We noticed at times his intellectual vitality. He recognized this nun after asking an old friend about her. He had met the woman years before becoming pope when she was a Bulgarian refugee in Poland.

JOAQUIN NAVARRO-VALLS, VATICAN SPOKESMAN: His memory, his capacity for planning toward the future, his sense of humor, everything of this is absolutely intact.

VINCI: Vatican officials also say the pope will not resign, drawing his energy from the outpouring of affection wherever he goes, including where Catholics are a small minority. Thousands of non-Catholics came to streets to greet him, pushed by ferocity routed in religious zeal. On his first leg of the trip to former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, the pope met all of the 120 Catholics there, prompting one observer to notice, "it would have been easier to fly them to the Vatican instead."

Alessio Vinci, CNN, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

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