Cardinal Sin raring to go but needs doctors' OK
Apr 06, 2005
The Spirit is willing but it is the doctors who will decide if retired Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin can go to the Vatican to help elect the new pope.
(Philippine Daily Inquirer, Apr. 6, 2005) The 76-year-old prelate is eager to leave but is grounded by kidney and heart problems, his private secretary, Fr. Rufino Sescon, said yesterday.
"The cardinal really wants to go and we're still trying to get clearance from his doctors," he told the Inquirer.
Doctors from the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital and the University of Santo Tomas Hospital are monitoring Sin's condition and will decide within the week if he is fit to fly to the Vatican, Sescon said.
Vatican reports said the conclave of cardinals, which will choose the new pontiff, will likely not be held before Sunday, giving Sin just enough time to make it to Rome in case the doctors give him the go-signal, he said.
By tradition, the conclave is held 15 to 20 days after a pope's funeral.
Doctors are apparently worried that he might not be able to withstand the rigors of a conclave.
No proxies
Vatican rules do not allow any proxy or representative to vote on behalf of an absent cardinal.
Sin, who is undergoing regular dialysis, has been using a wheelchair when he wants to go out for "long walks" for quite sometime now, Sescon said.
In the meantime, he is trying to cope with the passing of a dear friend in Pope John Paul II.
"He's very sad and silent about his friend's death," the priest said. "They were really very close."
Despite his illnesses, Sin stayed up at his Villa San Miguel residence in Mandaluyong City until 5 a.m. last Sunday, monitoring the Pope's deteriorating condition on cable television, Sescon said.
Enduring friendship
He fell silent after the Vatican announced that the 84-year-old Pontiff had died, the priest said.
Sin and John Paul's friendship dated back to the 1978 conclave that elected the Polish cardinal to the papacy.
"Being among the youngest members of the conclave then, they were neighbors in makeshift rooms at the Sistine Chapel," Sescon said. "The better quarters were usually reserved for the older cardinals."
The closeness endured even after the Pope became busy with Vatican affairs and Sin with pressing issues in the Philippines, which was then under the Marcos dictatorship, he said.
Only Filipino electors
"There was a time during the early part of the pontificate when the cardinal traveled to the Vatican six times a year," he said. "That's how close they were."
If Sin gets his medical clearance, he will join Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal in the conclave.
Sin and Vidal are the country's only cardinal electors, or those qualified to participate in the election of the next pope.
A third cardinal, 85-year-old Jose Cardinal Sanchez, is no longer eligible to take part. Electors must be below 80 years old.
Conclave's doorman
For many years after his elevation to the Sacred College of Cardinals at the age of 48, Sin was the youngest of the Church's "princes."
Thus, at the conclaves which elected Pope John Paul I and, months later, Pope John Paul II, he served as doorman, a position traditionally reserved for the youngest of the cardinals, said Sin's biographer, the late professor Felix B. Bautista.
Sin helped lead two bloodless popular revolts that ousted two presidents -- the late Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001.
Before Vidal flew to Rome yesterday, some priests told him in a light vein to prepare a new name for himself in case he was elected pope.
'Pope Niño I'
Episcopal vicar Monsignor Esteban Binghay said the priests suggested the name "Pope Niño 1," after Señor Sto. Niño, the patron saint of Cebu.
Vidal, 74, is among the 117 members of the College of Cardinals.
Vidal said he was not interested in becoming pope because he was sickly and already old.
"First of all, I hope I survive the trip because of ... I've just have had my procedure of the heart," Vidal told reporters.
Holy Spirit to decide
Vidal last November underwent an angioplasty, a medical procedure in which a balloon is used to open up narrowed or blocked blood vessels of the heart.
Vidal said he was excited about his trip because it would be his first time to join a conclave.
Asked about the possibility that the new pope could come from the Third World, the prelate replied: "We leave that to the Holy Spirit, we cannot dictate.
"I hope he will follow the same path of John Paul II, especially in matters of preserving the faith of the church, and at the same time, he will give us a true guide in this moment of crisis in the world in the modern times," he said.
Peanut vendors at Vatican
Another priest, Fr. Dan de los Angeles, said he teased Vidal about becoming the next pope.
The cardinal quipped that if it happened, Filipino vendors might go to the Vatican Plaza to sell peanuts.
Cardinal Sin raring to go but needs doctors' OK