MONACO - Hopes began to fade Saturday for Monaco`s 81-year-old ruler Prince Rainier, as the palace said his condition was still deteriorating despite intensive care, with his heart, lungs and kidneys all failing.
"The state of health of His Serene Highness Prince Rainier III is continuing to worsen. Despite the best available care and the control of the heart and lung infection, his heart, lung and kidney functions are gradually deteriorating," a bulletin said.
"The prognosis remains extremely guarded," it added.
The statement was issued soon after Pope John Paul II, himself seriously ill, sent a special blessing to the prince, saying he was "trusting in the intercession of the Virgin Mary."
Rainier III, Europe`s longest reigning monarch, was rushed into intensive care on Tuesday when his health took a dramatic turn for the worse.
He was in Monaco`s heart and thorax center, where he has been undergoing treatment since March 7 for a recurrent breathing problem.
The prince`s three children by his late wife, the US film star Grace Kelly, have been taking turns at his bedside, and he has also received visits from Monaco`s archbishop and a parish priest.
His only son, the bachelor Prince Albert, 47, is his heir.
"Informed of the health problems affecting Your Serene Highness, the Holy Father joins with you in thought and prayer with warm wishes towards you," said the pope`s message signed by his secretary of state Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
"Trusting in the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the pope asks the Lord to give (Rainier) the comfort and support of his grace, and grants him a heartfelt and special apostolic blessing to him and his family," the message, released by the Vatican press office, added.
On Friday evening, Albert, his elder sister Princess Caroline and her husband Prince Ernst-August of Hanover briefly appeared at the palace`s balcony as a group taking part in a Good Friday procession marched below.
On Saturday, two of Caroline`s four children, Andrea, 20, and Pierre, 17, also visited their grandfather at his bedside.
Rainier is the second longest-reigning monarch in the world after Thailand`s 75-year-old Bhumibol Adulyadej, who became king in 1946 at the age of 18.
Rainier came to the throne in the tiny Mediterranean territory in 1949, three years before Britain`s Queen Elizabeth II succeeded her father.
After years as a jet-setting playboy, he boosted the glamour quotient of his little state when he married Kelly in 1956. She died in a car crash in the principality in 1982.
Monaco was founded when Rainier`s Grimaldi dynasty took control of the principality in 1297. The family was deposed after the French Revolution when Monaco was united with France, but restored by treaty in 1861.
The principality has a population of around 32,000, many of them ultra-rich residents enjoying its tax-haven benefits.
Much of its image and financial success of the second-smallest state in Europe after the Holy See has been credited to Prince Rainier, who oversaw building projects, brought in the Formula One motor race, and fostered Monaco`s reputation as an exclusive playground for the rich and famous.
With Prince Albert`s bachelor status -- and persistent rumours, denied, that he is gay -- casting a question over the Grimaldi family`s rule, Prince Rainier in 2002 changed Monaco`s constitution to allow the offspring of his daughters, Caroline, 48, and Stephanie, 40, to enter the line of succession.
03/26/2005 16:57 GMT