-Caveat Lector-
Will the Pope die "at home," i.e., in Poland?
Pope Ill, Cancels His Appearances
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
.c The Associated Press
KRAKOW, Poland (AP) - Stricken with a mild case of the flu, Pope John Paul II
canceled all his appearances Tuesday and was to remain in bed, his spokesman
said. Among those events was a Mass in Krakow that was expected to draw more
than one million people.
The 79-year-old pontiff developed a fever of 100 degrees Monday afternoon and
was receiving ``anti-influenza therapy,'' Vatican spokesman Joaquin
Navarro-Valls said.
The strain of a grueling schedule - 15 cities since the trip began June 5 -
had begun to show on the frail, 79-year-old pontiff. He has looked and
sounded tired at his last few stops.
The spokesman said the flu was not related to the fall the pope took
Saturday, when he cut his head and required three stitches. He said it was
more likely due to the pope's heavy schedule.
Tuesday's Mass on the empty plains near the National Museum in Krakow instead
will be conducted by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angela Sodano,
with the sermon read in Polish by Krakow's archbishop, Cardinal Franciszek
Macharski.
Navarro-Valls said no decision had been made yet about the pope's schedule
for the rest of the week. He was to stay in Poland until Friday, then make a
quick trip to Armenia to visit the ailing Orthodox Patriarch Garegin I before
returning to Rome.
The pope arrived back in his old diocese Monday night and spent the night in
his old home, the archbishop's residence. A large crowd gathered outside his
window Monday night, but the pope never made an appearance. During his last
visit in 1997, he came to the window and thanked the crowd ``for remembering
me.''
More than any other city in Poland, Krakow has a special bond with John Paul.
He moved here in 1938, was ordained a priest in 1946 and served as archbishop
before his election in 1978 as the first Polish pope.
Prior to this setback, the pope was to visit the nearby town of Wadowice,
where he was born, on Wednesday, pay his respects at his parents' grave on
Thursday and meet with a small group of friends in Krakow's Wawel Cathedral,
where he celebrated his first Mass upon becoming a priest in 1946.
Throughout the trip, the pope has exhorted his countrymen to stay true to
their Catholic faith as the new millennium approaches. His words have gotten
stronger along the way.
After a Mass on Monday where he lashed out against abortion, John Paul
visited a poor mining region hit hard by Poland's transition from communism
to a free-market system and warned against placing profit ahead of workers.
``Because of the laws of the market, human rights are being forgotten,'' he
told a crowd of 380,000 in Sosnowiec.
Tens of thousands of miners have become unemployed or gone into government
retraining programs since Poland's market reforms began in 1989, yet almost
all of the 61 state-owned coal mines are still losing money.
A government restructuring plan that took effect last year calls for reducing
coal production by about 20 percent and cutting another 107,000 jobs by 2002,
but has met with sharp protest from miners.
A day after revisiting the site where he issued his call for renewal in
Poland 20 years ago - words that helped inspire the Solidarity movement that
toppled communism - the pope said the economic changes that have come to
Poland were ``necessary.''
But on a field surrounded by bleak, concrete apartment blocks built for
workers during the communist era, he warned that danger signs had appeared
that too many people were losing their jobs or being forced into excessive
overtime for the sake of ``economic profit.''
``Because of the laws of the market, human rights are being forgotten,'' he
said.
Tens of thousands of miners have become unemployed or gone into government
retraining programs since Poland's market reforms began in 1989, yet almost
all the 61 state-owned coal mines are still losing money.
A government restructuring plan that took effect last year calls for reducing
coal production by about 20 percent and cutting another 107,000 jobs by 2002,
but has met with sharp protest from miners.
Earlier, at a Mass dedicated to Polish youth in Lowicz, near Warsaw, John
Paul made an impassioned plea against abortion and urged his country to make
Christ the cornerstone of family life.
``I say to all the fathers and mothers of my homeland and of the whole world,
to all men and women without exception: every child conceived in the womb of
its mother has the right to life,'' he said.
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