Bulgarian tour takes toll on pope

A frail-looking pope arrives at Rila

RILA MONASTERY, Bulgaria -- Pope John Paul II has visited a mountain sanctuary that inspired centuries of Bulgarian resistance to Ottoman rule.

His increasing frailty apparent to all who greeted him, the pope arrived at the Rila monastery on Saturday, the third day of his visit to Orthodox Bulgaria.

He was shown frescoed halls and venerated icons symbolising the blend of eastern and western traditions by the former king and current Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg.

"The fact that he came to Bulgaria is important, but to see him saying a prayer at my father's grave was more than moving for me," Saxe-Coburg said. "I have no words to describe it."

He later returned to Sofia for meetings with the leader of Bulgaria's Muslim community and with local Catholics.

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John Paul's visit to Bulgaria is the first-ever to the former communist country by a pope.

During the visit he has beatified three Roman Catholic priests who were executed in 1952 after being convicted of spying by the then communist regime.

At Rila, he sat hunched over and one of his hands shook as he read just a few scattered lines of his remarks with badly slurred speech before letting an aide deliver the rest.

It took him a minute to shuffle 50 feet to pay his respects at the tomb of the late King Boris III.

The pope did manage to praise the monks' work as "a great gift for the whole church" and spoke of "the richness of Eastern monastic spirituality."

"We gratefully admire the precious tradition that Eastern monks and nuns live faithfully and continue to hand on from generation to generation," the pope said.

Making reference to the 82-year-old pope's frailty, Saxe-Coburg said: "It was obvious that the pope's mental condition is much better than his physical."

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said: "The condition of the pope is obvious to all. He will continue to travel under these limitations."

But Metropolitan Simeon, a senior Bulgarian Orthodox cleric, said: "His mission is his desire but I think the people around him should tell him to stop.

"Who among us could do what he is doing? No one but him. He is suffering like Christ."

The 96th official foreign trip of the Polish-born Pope's 23-year pontificate will end on Sunday in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city and home to most of its Roman Catholic minority of 80,000 people.

The Vatican has already confirmed that the pope will travel in July to Canada, Mexico and Guatemala.

He is to visit his native Poland in August, and there is talk of a visit to Croatia in September.