Vatican City, Oct 14, 2003 / 22:00 pm
Pope John Paul II still can carry out his mission and shows no sign of resigning, several cardinals told media outlets yesterday.
"He still seems to be able to do it," Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, D.C., told the Associated Press yesterday. "As long as God lets him do it, he's going to continue doing it."
On several occasions, the pope said clearly that he does not intend to resign.
Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, said the pope sees value in continuing his pontificate “as a weakened man, a man who isn't up to the physical standards that you would associate with him even a few years ago.” In an interview with the Chicago Sun Times yesterday, Cardinal George called the pope’s spirit “indomitable.” “He is a man who suffers and explains what that suffering means…. This is how the world is saved, by filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ,” said the cardinal.