“How did he look?” That was the question people would ask, for years, every time I attended a papal event. The Pope in those days was John Paul II, who had the looks of a leading man and the gait of a star athlete when he was elected and kept them both for well over a decade.
John Paul II had an appendectomy in October of 1996 (a little less than a year before I moved to Rome), but would not be hospitalised again until February of 2005, even though he was less and less himself.
There had been speculation regarding his health for years, in particular, rumours – later confirmed and eventually acknowledged even by the Vatican – that John Paul II was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. I don’t quite recall when he began to use a roller as a mobility aid and strength-saving measure, but he was definitely relying on it by the Jubilee Year 2000.
