VATICAN CITY, Feb 8 (AFP) - As a frail Pope John Paul II marked a seventh day in hospital Tuesday, with no news yet on his eventual release, comments by the Vatican's top official brought an old Vatican taboo -- the question of a possible resignation -- into the open.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the pope's secretary of state, left the question hanging when journalists asked him late Monday whether, during his current health crisis, the 84-year-old pope had considered stepping down.
Sodano, 77, significantly did not dismiss the idea out of hand, as Vatican watchers have almost come to expect.
"Let's leave that to the pope's conscience," he said.
The comment reverberated around Rome early Tuesday. The Corriere della Sera said "the taboo question has returned to circulate around the Vatican".
While Italy's main newspapers posed the question on their front pages, they were careful to place Sodano's comment, which preceded fulsome praise and support for the pope, in its context.
"John Paul II has not changed his mind. He has no intention of renouncing his responsibility, even if his illness is progressing," wrote commentator Vittorio Messori in the Corriere della Sera.
La Stampa was surprised by Sodano's comment.
"What did his Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, intend by his comments yesterday after he has seen the pontiff? That resignations are possible, or maybe imminent?
"If you ask me, all these questions are futile, because the answer has already been given, very clearly, many times," said commentator Leonardo Zega.
The answer, of course, is "certainly not". The pope used his appearance at his hospital window on Sunday to show Vatican cardinals and Roman Catholics throughout the world that he was still in charge, however frail.
"Even here in hospital, surrounded by other sick people... I am continuing to serve the Church and the whole of humanity," he said in a message he was too weak to read himself and had to leave to an aide.
In an earlier speech Monday, as La Stampa pointed out, Sodano had recalled that Pope Leo XIII had lived, and remained pope, until the age of 92.
"Let us pray for a long life and for serenity for the holy father. The affection of the children of the Church is the best medicine for him," Sodano said.
"I remember, reading the work of Saint John Chrysostom (a fourth-century Greek preacher), that, contrary to what happens in society, in the Church, old age is very useful."
Former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, a contemporary of the pope, said it was "extremely wrong to even talk about" resignation.
"I believe the pope hasn't even vaguely thought about it," said Andreotti, a Christian Democrat.
Yet on Monday recently retired Brazilian bishop Pedro Casaldaliga, 77, said the pope should retire.
"We who are old, we are subject to limitations, we don't have the same strength or the same lucidity we once had," said the prelate, for whom the pope named a replacement from his hospital bed only last week.
In recent years, a succession of cardinals, including German Cardinal Karl Lehmann, Belgian cardinal Godfried Danneels and Austria's Cardinal Christoph Schonborn have spoken of the possibility of the pope's resignation in response to questions from journalists.
Meanwhile goodwill messages continued to pour in to Rome's Gemelli hospital where the pope's condition was reported by the Vatican to be steadily improving even though doctors said he would not be released until at least the end of the week.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had a 45-minute meeting with Sodano at the Vatican as part of her European tour, largely centering on the Middle East peace process.
A Vatican statement released after the meeting said she had passed on US President George W. Bush's wishes for the pontiff's early recovery.
A group of Polish people accompanied by priests and nuns delivered a letter and flowers for the pope at the hospital on Tuesday.

02/08/2005 14:22 GMT - AFP