Madrid, Spain, Aug 25, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The ex-Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, said this week the mental and spiritual health, as well as the pastoral zeal of Pope John Paul II, are just as vigorous as they were 20 years ago.
The Pope is “dependent on a moving chair and on others for his mobility, but in terms of his ideas, his feelings, his mental clarity, and his pastoral zeal, he is just as he was 20 years ago,” said the Cardinal.
“His decline is physical but in no way spiritual, mental or pastoral,” he added.
Cardinal Somalo said the Pope will make his planned trip to Loreto in September, where he will beatify “four members of Catholic Action, one of which was from Catalonia” in Spain. “At the moment I don’t think there are any other trips planned but I say so with much reservation because we are used to being greatly surprised by the Holy Father.”
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