What is the status of the Pope’s health?
Go here to read the rest. The Vatican routinely conceals any health problems that a pope experiences. At 78, overweight, with one lung, and a punishing schedule for a young man, PopeWatch would be surprised if the Pope did not often feel exhausted. We will probably not be privy to any more information about the Pope’s health unless some crisis that cannot be hidden occurs.
May he find the health necessary to do the work that God, in His wisdom, assigned him to accomplish.
Don L’s prayer is most appropriate. One may however hope that God has had Pope Francis accomplish quite enough already.
God bless him, Who can keep us from falling.
I still don’t understand why Benedict left. What was wrong? Something must have been.
God preserve him and his health.
I wish I felt as Dale Price prayed. I just want Francis out of office even as I want Obama out of office. The worst Pope and the worst President ever.
Gerald Ford’s tumbles got a lot of press in 1975. He lived another 31 years.
True Art. Of course he wasn’t 78, overweight and operating on one lung.
You don’t have to think he’s a good, prudent or wise Pope to pray for him. I’m convinced that the Lord Jesus commanded us pray for those who vex us not just for their sake, but for ours.
You sound like my 12 step sponsor, Dale. And my Confessor.
“I still don’t understand why Benedict left.”
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David, he never really wanted to be Pope to begin with, and he even tried to sabotage his election by delivering a “these are my views, warts and all” eulogy at the funeral of St. John Paul II. I recall a story that he asked for a recount before he accepted his election. He took the job only when he was convinced God wanted him to. Even when he was serving JPII, he tried twice to go back to the university only to have the Pope reject his resignation because he was needed in the Vatican.
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Other than his health (the reported fall in Mexico City), the major factor in Benedict’s decision must have been his humility and his spirituality. He was obviously one of the people to whom the principle of “rising to one’s level of incompetence” did not apply.
Jude 3 – 25
3 Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
4 For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.*
5 Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved* a people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgement of the great day.
7 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust,* serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones.*
9 But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander* against him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’
10 But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct.
11Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah’s rebellion.
12 These are blemishes* on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.* They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted;
13wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved for ever.
14 It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘See, the Lord is coming* with tens of thousands of his holy ones,
15 to execute judgement on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’
16 These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage.
17 But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18 for they said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.’
19 It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions.
20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;
21 keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to* eternal life.
22 And have mercy on some who are wavering;
23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.*
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing,
25 to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.
Tom D. When, in regard to Benedict XVI, you said, ” He was obviously one of the people to whom the principle of “rising to one’s level of incompetence” did not apply”, I immediately thought of that being “The Peter Principle”. No matter the venue, it probably applies to most of us who are promoted to positions of authority, and I count myself in that number.