
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 18, 1994                   TAG: 9405180108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: VATICAN CITY                                LENGTH: Short

VATICAN DENIES RUMORS OF ILLNESS

A report that Pope John Paul II is being treated for Parkinson's disease is baseless, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The report, in the Spanish newspaper Diario 16, was the latest speculation that the pope is seriously ill.

Parkinson's characteristically leaves sufferers, many of them elderly, with a shuffling gait, deadpan face and tremors of the hand or face. The pope suffers from a tremor in his left hand that the Vatican has never explained, but shows none of the other symptoms associated with Parkinson's.

Spanish Jesuit-journalist Pedro Miguel Lamet, without citing sources, said in the article published Saturday that the pope has been taking two medications to combat Parkinson's for three years.

The Vatican reacted swiftly after the newspaper Il Messaggero in Rome highlighted the report on its front page Tuesday. Spokesman Joaquin Navarro labeled the story "irresponsible information, without basis."

- Associated Press

by CNB