WITH the fast-declining Pope absent from Holy Week ceremonies for the first time in his 26-year reign, this Easter is being billed in the Vatican as not only the Passion of Christ, but also the Passion of John Paul II.

Tomorrow, Italian state television is to broadcast a Vatican-approved documentary entitled John Paul II: The Untold Story, summing up the Pope’s extraordinary career almost in obituary style. Culled partly from film of off-stage moments, it contrasts the towering, charismatic globetrotter known in his 1980s prime as “God’s Athlete” with the present stooping figure able to make only silent appearances at his window above St Peter’s Square.

The Pope, 84, has always presided over Holy Week ceremonies, which culminate in Easter Day. But this year for the first time the “suffering Pope”, gaunt after an emergency throat operation last month, has handed key events to his top cardinals.

Easter Mass at St Peter’s tomorrow will be presided over by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s Secretary of State (Prime Minister). The Pope’s Easter message will be read by an aide, although the Vatican said yesterday that the pontiff, who was last seen at his study window on Wednesday, will take some part in the blessing after that message.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar of Rome — who presided at Palm Sunday Mass a week ago — carried the cross yesterday at the torchlit Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) procession at the Colosseum, with the Pope present only via video link. The camera showed him from the back, watching the procession on television. His face could not be seen.

The Good Friday meditations were read out by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pontiff’s guardian of orthodoxy as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. A fourth powerful Vatican prelate, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the head of the Congregation of Bishops, presided at the Maundy Thursday rites, remarking on the pontiff’s “serene abandonment to God, which he links to the mystery of the Cross”.

The Vatican, in other words, is not only preparing for the Pope’s demise but also making a direct comparison between Christ’s suffering and the Pope’s own courage in the face of death. The Pope himself recently retorted when asked if he might resign: “Did Christ come down from the Cross?” Last night, Italian television broadcast a programme entitled The Pope’s Calvary, yet another reference to the Crucifixion.

“The Passion of John Paul II is a sacred mystery, but one accessible to the whole world,” Marco Politi, the Vatican affairs expert for La Repubblica said. “He uses his suffering to convey a message of faith and hope.” The Pope’s homilies — now routinely read out by an aide — have taken on an elegiac, valedictory air. “Do not be afraid!” he wrote in his Palm Sunday address, using the same words which echoed round the world at the start of his reign, and in particular his native Poland, where they helped to spark the historic revolt that brought down communism.

He assured young people that “the risen Christ and the most holy Mary will always be at your side”. The words “after I have gone” were not spoken, but they hung in the air. Vatican sources say that since his release from the Gemelli hospital in Rome two weeks ago, after his second admission in a month with “severe breathing difficulties”, the Pope’s recovery from surgery is slower than they had hoped. At one appearance, as many in the crowd below held each other in tears, he banged the lectern on his window sill in frustration.

Vatican insiders say he is having great difficulty swallowing, is regularly given oxygen and is being fed by a drip. The tube installed in his throat to help him breathe after a tracheotomy on February 24 has to be constantly cleared of catarrh. Amid a nervous atmosphere there was a flurry of alarm this week when specialists from the Gemelli hospital were suddenly rushed to reinforce the medical team at the Pope’s apartment, and television satellite vans moved into place around St Peter’s. The Rome daily, Il Messaggero, quoted a Polish priest as having been told by the Pope’s devoted Polish secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz: “Pray for the Pope because his condition is getting worse.”

Cardinal Ruini said the Pope “continues to carry out the acts of government and take major decisions”. During The Pope’s Calvary yesterday, Cardinal Ratzinger said: “The Pope is working in absolute lucidity. And given the physical trials John Paul II is going through, even this is a gift from God.”

This week the Pope named bishops in Morocco, the Ivory Coast and Spain. More significantly there are reports in the Vatican that after Easter the Pope will nominate cardinals to bring the conclave which will choose his successor up to full strength. He may replace Cardinal Sodano, 77, as Secretary of State, with Cardinal Re, 71.

The move, seen as a rebuff to Cardinal Sodano for raising the taboo topic of papal abdication last month, would improve Cardinal Re’s chances of becoming Pope, although there are other Italian contenders.

Cardinal Józef Glemp, the Primate of Poland, said this week that the next pontiff would “probably be Italian”.

THE CONTENDERS

Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras, 62.
Archbishop of Tegucigalpa. A Salesian. Brilliant linguist. Like Hummes, a fierce defender of the downtrodden. Charming, noted for dry sense of humour.

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