Pompeii energises the Pope

Pope John Paul II has always relished a challenge, whether it's the Cathlolic church taking on the Warsaw pact or something more personal.

When two cardinals intimated last week that the Pope was near death, it was clearly just the tonic he needed.

His response was to lead a two hour canonisation ceremony in St Peter's Square on Sunday, without a hitch. And yesterday he again confounded the breast-beaters by taking a helicopter to Pompei, the town in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius that has grown up alongside the ancient Roman town buried by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD.

He came to a century-old shrine in the town's piazza dedicated to the Virgin Mary to say the prayers of the Rosary. The event was the culmination of the year he has dedicated to reviving rosary prayers, focused on the Madonna. The shrine is visited by 4 million pilgrims every year.

As on Sunday, the 83-year-old pontiff, who has been struggling against Parkinson's Disease for 10 years, was defiantly vigorous. Driving into town aboard the open-topped popemobile, he waved broadly and continuously to the crowds lining the street.

Though still sounding tired and weak, he read the entire text of the dedication ceremony, and summoned a burst of energy - his brow taut with concentration, squeezing the words out of his chest - for the concluding remarks.

"These ruins can talk," he said of the excavated remains of ancient Pompeii behind him. "They ask the decisive question of what is man's destiny. Today, just as in the times of ancient Pompeii, it is necessary to proclaim Christ to a society that has distanced itself from Christian values and even seems to have lost its memory."

Modern Pompei took the day off to welcome John Paul, with schools and businesses closed and the streets packed with at least 10,000 people. Many had to watch the ceremony on screens set up in nearby streets, with the main piazza restricted to people with tickets.

October 2003 is proving to be a momentous month for the Pope. Next week, on the 16th, he celebrates 25 years on the papal throne. The following Sunday he conducts the beatification ceremony for his old friend Mother Teresa, the fastest beatification on record following her death at in Calcutta in 1997.

Then on 22nd October, the latest batch of newly created cardinals arrive in Rome to receive their red hats of office This event was expected to happen in February, but last month the Pope insisted on bringing it forward to October, on account of his frail health Popes are elected by a conclave of cardinals, with all those under the age of 80 entitled to vote.

John Paul first came to Pompei in October 1979, one year after the start of his papacy. Many people in the crowd yesterday had waited hours for a glimpse of him. "I love the pope. He's the most holy man on Earth," said Ella McLoughlin, a pilgrim from Worcester, Mass. "I think God still wants to use him. That's why he's still alive."

Angela Tuccino, who had travelled with her family from the southern Italian city of Avellino, said after John Paul's departure, "It was a beautiful event, most satisfying. It's clearly difficult for him to carry out these ceremonies but I'm very glad he came. We always pray for him."

The short hop to Pompeii and back - an hour's ride from the Vatican's heliport - is the last trip on the Pope's schedule. After this his travel diary is a blank. Recently, John Paul's Italian biographer, Marco Politi, reported the Pope as telling him, "My travelling days are done."

Yesterday he asked the Pompei crowd to pray for him "now and always in this sanctuary" - taken as another of his increasingly frequent references to his own death. But if his recovery continues, it is hard to imagine him allowing himself to be buried alive in the Vatican.