Pope 'lucid' After Heart Failure

Pope John Paul was today in a "very serious" condition after suffering heart failure but the Vatican insisted he was "conscious, lucid and serene".

The Vatican said his condition declined sharply yesterday when he suffered heart failure and septic shock after contracting a high fever that followed the development of a urinary tract infection.

The pontiff, 84, who has led the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics for 26 years, was given the Roman Catholic sacrament for the sick and dying, once known as the "last rites", last night.

Today the Vatican said that his condition remained serious and his blood pressure was "unstable", and he required assistance to breath. Report he was in a coma were denied. His aides said he had decided he did not wish to return to hospital and he was being attended to by four doctors in his Vatican apartment.

A heart failure occurs when the heart no longer has the strength to pump blood through the body, and is a sign that the body's cardiac system is failing. Health experts said the usual prognosis after suffering heart failure was not good.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said: "This morning, the condition of the Holy Father is very serious ... I have never seen him in such a state."

However Mr Navarro-Valls described how the Pope had participated in a 6am (0500BST) mass at his bed and had asked for certain religious texts to be read to him, making the sign of the cross at the appropriate moments. The spokesman said several cardinals had visited him in his apartment.

Mr Navarro-Valls said the Pope had decided to stay at the Vatican after being told it was not "absolutely necessary" he return to hospital. He was receiving cardio-respiratory assistance and was being helped by his personal doctor, two intensive care doctors, a cardiologist, an ear, nose and throat specialist and two nurses.

Below his third floor studio in St Peter's square, thousands of anxious pilgrims have gathered and messages of support were being made around the world. "I want him to hold on but it is all in God's hands now," said Elzbieta Galuszko, 64, at the church where the Pope was baptised in Wadowice, southern Poland. "We can only pray for him so he can pull through these difficult moments."

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's vicar for Rome, was one of those who visited John Paul early today and said he had found him "profoundly serene and fully lucid".

"I prayed with him for a moment which profoundly moved me. Certainly the Pope has completely left himself in God's hands. I invite all Romans and Italians to intensify prayers for him in this moment," Cardinal Ruini told Italy's TG5 television. He said a special mass for the Pope would be held at 7pm (1800 BST) at the basilica of St John Lateran in Rome.

The health of the Pope, who also has Parkinson's disease, has declined in recent weeks and he was twice admitted to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic hospital because of breathing problems. On February 24 he underwent a tracheotomy to insert a tube in his throat to help with his breathing.

The Rome daily newspaper, La Repubblica, reported today that last night's "last rites" sacrament was administered by John Paul's closest aide, Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who serves as his private secretary. The sacrament is performed not only for people who are near death, but for those who are very sick and it may be repeated.

The newspaper said Archbishop Dziwisz had given the pontiff the same sacrament at the hospital before his tracheotomy operation.

In recent public appearances the Pope has looked very ill and he has not been able to carry out his full duties as pontiff. He was unable to speak when he appeared at his apartment window on Wednesday to bless pilgrims in St Peter's Square. Later that day, the Vatican announced he had been fitted with a nasal feeding tube to help his nutritional intake.

Speaking in London today, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said: "I would want everyone to join with me in prayers for him as he very bravely meets his last hours and days with serenity, calm and peace and for all that we give thanks to God.

"The last I have heard is that the Pope ... doesn't wish to go back to hospital, he wants to remain in the Vatican where he will stay to the end."

The archbishop, leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, said there would be prayers in Westminster Cathedral and a mass later in the day for the pontiff. He described John Paul's 26-year papacy leading the world's 1 billion Catholics as "extraordinary".

He added that it was no surprise the Pope's condition had become serious because he had been ill for some time, but it was not yet time to look to the future.

Archbishop Murphy-O'Connor said the Pope had been "a moral voice" for the whole world, adding: "The papacy and what it represents has had a more significant role in the world than it ever has before".

If a pontiff dies, cardinals from around the world are called to Rome to choose a successor at a conclave which starts in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel 15 to 20 days after the death.