Tried To Deceive Pope

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30153, 10 June 1963, Page 11

Tried To Deceive Pope

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) MILAN, June 8. Professor .Antonia Gasberrini. the 81-year-old personal physician to Pope John, said in an Interview published today that so long as they could, the Pope’s doctors “tried piously to deceive him” about his condition (a stomach tumour, and later, peritonitis).

Asked by the Milan daily newspaper “Il Giorno” *why no medical bulletins were issued on the Pope’s condition, Professor Gasberrini replied: “Pope John was conscious until 24 hours before his death. He read the newspapers. and we did not want it to be us—the doctors—to

confirm to him brutally the gravity of his illness, even if he knew it already.” When the doctors realised Pope John was no longer able to read newspapers, they signed the only bulletin issued. “As long as we could, we tried piously to deceive him, even though because of his exceptional strength of mind there perhaps have been no need to do so,” Professor Gasberrini said. There had been talks of new medicine sent from abroad, and miraculous drugs, he said. “It is true they did arrive from every part of the world, but we never used them. We were not there to make experiments." he said. The Pope was not too fond of medicine. “Our mothers used to give us castor oil—that’s the medicine for us old

people, isn’t it, professor?” he used to say, according to Professor Gasberrini. In Vatican City, mourners kneeled before the simple marble form of Pope John in the crypt of St Peter’s Basilica as the Roman Catholic Church opened a nine-day period of solemn requiem masses for the repose of his soul. The last of the ceremonies of mourning on June 17 is regarded as the official funeral and will be attended by diplomats and statesmen.

Two days later the College of Cardinals will retire behind locked doors to elect Pope John’s successor. A Vatican announcement said that by Monday nearly all the 82 cardinals should have arrived for the conclave to elect a new Pope.