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Under an intermittent drizzle, the cardinal knelt before a portrait of the Madonna and child and addressed the crowd, made up largely of priests, nuns and pilgrims.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 2,000 years the Christian people have prayed for the pope when he was in danger or sick,\u201d said Cardinal Parolin, adding that now the time had come to pray for Francis \u201cin this moment of illness and trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis is the 266th pope to lead the Roman Catholic Church, and for much of the church\u2019s history, especially when the papacy acted as a monarchy directly and indirectly governing large swaths of land, the death of a pope could transform the fortunes of powerful aristocrats, change the direction of a powerful state, or even determine where the church had its headquarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe upheaval that follows the death of the pope today is incomparably different from what might have happened\u201d centuries ago, said Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a church historian. He said that in some cases a pope\u2019s death would be kept a secret, for fear that a papal entourage, or at times even the population of Rome, might ransack the Apostolic Palace. \u201cA papal death provoked all sorts of problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the modern era, long after the pope lost his temporal powers, transitions have run more smoothly. Now a change at the top, while having great consequence for the priorities, vision and ideological complexion of the church, is unlikely to have much geopolitical impact. Still, the last days of a pope attract pilgrims, and news media, from all over the world to Rome, and they focus the faithful\u2019s attention on their spiritual leader.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Cardinals said the rosary before the passing of Pope John XXIII in 1963. It was during a similar prayer session in St. Peter\u2019s Square in 2005 that Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, then the under secretary of state for the Vatican, announced the death of Pope John Paul II after his final days of agony.<\/p>\n
The once vigorous Polish pope had long suffered from Parkinson\u2019s disease: He had lost his ability to speak clearly and often appeared hunched and ailing. His failing health had been a subject of morbid attention for years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt was so weird,\u201d said Father Paul Alger, a 42-year-old priest from Augusta, Ga., who studied theology in Rome and recalled those years as a perennial papal death watch.<\/p>\n
Francis, who initially speculated that he would have a short pontificate, has instead led the church for a dozen eventful and busy years. For the first years, he crisscrossed the globe, met with world leaders and played an active role in championing the issues he cared most about, especially on behalf of migrants and the marginalized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But a bad knee and sciatica began to physically slow Francis down more recently. He began to depend on a cane and a walker and then a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
Francis had colon surgery in 2021 and was operated on again two years later for a hernia that developed because of that surgery. Throughout, he kept up a demanding schedule, but his breathing became belabored, as he struggled with respiratory infections and now an explosion of pneumonia and infections that has put him in critical condition.<\/p>\n
The faithful and clerics in attendance on Monday preferred to focus on Francis\u2019 life rather than what seemed the end of it. Bishop Manuel Nin, the apostolic exarch to the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church, called it \u201cunhealthy\u201d to fixate on something that was ultimately \u201cin God\u2019s hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
But some clerics worried this latest downturn could be Francis\u2019 last.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say he had a good night, he is resting, but at the same time it is clear his prognosis is not good,\u201d said Bishop Earl Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio, who also attended the rosary in St. Peter\u2019s Square. \u201cIt\u2019s the beginning of the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n