Surgeon: Pope Suffers From Parkinson's

R O M E, Jan. 3, 2001 -- The surgeon who operated on Pope John Paul II after he broke his leg in 1994 has become the first member of his medical team to acknowledge publicly that the80-year-old pontiff is suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Italian orthopaedic surgeon Gianfranco Fineschi told a weekly magazine he was concerned about the pope’s health after a gruelling Jubilee Year in 2000, during which he attended engagements nearly every day.

The jubilee opened on Christmas Day 1999 and officially ends on the Roman Catholic feast day of the Epiphany on Saturday.

“Every time the pope sets off on a journey or when he gets tired during an official engagement, I fear for him,” Italian news agency ANSA quoted Fineschi as saying in the interview.

The interview is to be published in Thursday’s Oggi, whichpermitted only a few quotes to be released through ANSA.

“I should order him to rest but it would be futile. The various operations he has had and the Parkinson’s disease have made him suffer much,” he added.

Never a Word From the Vatican

The Vatican has never officially acknowledged the pope has Parkinson’s and no member of his medical team has before openly linked the pope with the disease.

Fears that John Paul could be suffering from the same disease suffered by former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali increased in the early 1990s when a violent trembling in his left hand became clearly visible.

The pope also sometimes appears to suffer from rigidity of the facial muscles and a slow, stooped gait — which can also be symptoms of Parkinson’s or a related disease.

In October 1996, chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, a trained doctor, said the Polish pope was suffering from a type of “extrapyramidal” neurological disorder.

The Vatican had before then explained the trembling in thepope’s hand as being caused by nerve damage suffered in the 1981assassination attempt in St Peter’s Square.

“Extrapyramidal” refers to the part of the central nervoussystem situated outside the pyramidal tract in the brain stem.

Parkinson’s is a nervous disease which spreads slowlythrough the body, causing trembling of limbs and head. Itssymptoms can be partially suppressed by drugs as it advances.

Dodging Questions

At a 1996 news conference following the pope’s successfulappendectomy, his then chief surgeon Professor FrancescoCrucitti sidestepped questions on whether the pope hadParkinson’s, saying only that a problem existed.

“There are specialists who are following him,” saidCrucitti, who has since died.

In addition to a weeklong trip to Israel andPalestinian-controlled territories last March, the pope attendedhundreds of ceremonies last year, read through thousands ofpages of texts in a number of languages and has endured chillwinter winds and scorching summer heat.

Papal trips already planned for 2001 include Syria, Malta,Ukraine and possibly Greece.

“The Holy Father has a heavy framed body, a bit like aswimmer’s, but without God’s help he would never have made itthrough the year,” Fineschi said. In the few excerpts released,he made no further mention of Parkinson’s.

The pope’s increasing frailty has led to suggestions that hecould become the first pontiff in 700 years to retire — apossibility dismissed by the Vatican.

Bishop Karl Lehmann, the president of the German Bishops’Conference, said last year the pope could retire if his healthprevented him from doing his job.