Pope John Ii

Pope John Paul II issued an updated code Friday for electing popes, introducing modern comforts for cardinals and reaffirming rules against electronic bugging and cellular phones to safeguard the conclave's secrecy. In his new apostolic constitution "Universi Dominici Gregis" (The Shepherd of the Lord's Whole Flock), the pope reaffirmed that cardinals 80 and older cannot enter a conclave to elect a pope. He also kept the upper limit for the number of cardinal-electors to 120.

He doesn't normally do house calls. But when Dr. Vincent Fortanasce was summoned by the Vatican to tend to the pope, he was quick to agree. Fortanasce is a neurological rehabilitation specialist and an author with a long history in Arcadia, where he practices. It is the memory of half an hour in August 2000 that looms largest in the 68-year-old physician's life, however. Fortanasce was in Rome that month, volunteering for three weeks of first aid duty with the Order of Malta, a laymen's group that offers international emergency medical service.

Re "Answering to a Higher Standard," editorial, Jan. 17: My esteem for The Times has skyrocketed! In your beautiful editorial you wisely pointed up the reason Pope John Paul II is loved and admired by so many. Regardless of criticism from the secularists and even risk to his life from terrorists, he continues to cry out to all mankind that the eternal law of God must be obeyed--even when, humanly speaking, it may seem so difficult. If all nations heeded him and directed their domestic and foreign policies according to the benign will of the creator, there would be heaven on Earth.

On Sunday, an estimated 1.5 million people crowded into St. Peter's Square and surrounding streets to celebrate the beatification of Karol Wojtyla, who as Pope John Paul II reigned for more than a quarter of a century as pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Beatification is the penultimate step in the process that confers sainthood, and the church has suspended its normal rules to accelerate John Paul II's elevation to that honor. In the Catholic tradition, saints are people whose demonstration of "heroic virtue" makes them worthy of emulation and veneration throughout the universal church.

The Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 was freed from prison today after serving more than 25 years in Italy and Turkey for the plot against the pontiff and the slaying of a Turkish journalist. Dozens of police officers stood guard as Mehmet Ali Agca left Kartal prison. John Paul personally forgave him 2 1/2 years after the attack.

Before hundreds of thousands of the Roman Catholic faithful, the late Pope John Paul II was beatified Sunday in a ceremony that declared him "blessed" and put the Polish pontiff one step closer to sainthood. A packed St. Peter's Square erupted in applause when the current pope, Benedict XVI, recited the words that elevated his predecessor, whose massive portrait was then unveiled over the doorway of the basilica. A choir broke into a chorus of "Amens" as some in the crowd wept.

"You need to create blur to create desire," Jean-Charles de Castelbajac says in English, at a swanky restaurant in the center of Paris. The manager teases him about a TV appearance as he walks in and shakes hands with a famous French actor. Later, leaning in off his seat, the 61-year-old fashion designer and artist of noble birth excitedly talks about projects and the changing fashion business. "You like to see a man you understand in one minute? If you want to be seduced you don't like some blur?

Dinner guest Re "Hu drives straight for the heartland," Jan. 19, and "Hu treated to American feast," Jan. 20 Is it just me, or is there something decidedly unseemly about President Obama ? a Nobel Peace Prize winner ? hosting a state dinner (at taxpayer expense, of course) for the president of China, who jailed his country's Nobel Peace Prize winner and strong-armed lesser countries to go along with this travesty or else? I've been unemployed for seven months and am anxious for the production of jobs, but not at the hands of a leader who acts like a tyrant.

A pope, let's face it, has certain built-in limitations as a main character in a musical (see: Celibacy, rule of). If for only that reason, Andrew Lloyd Webber probably has little to fear from the latest musical to open in Rome: a three-hour marathon about the life of the late John Paul II. But "Non Abbiate Paura" ("Be Not Afraid"), which recently had a two-night run before a longer return in the fall, does offer a passion and reverence for its subject that the opening night audience clearly appreciated.

Gene Greytak, whose resemblance to Pope John Paul II turned the retired real estate broker into a papal impersonator with appearances in movies and television, has died. He was 84. Greytak died Sunday at his home in North Tustin of cancer, said his wife of 62 years, Dorothy. He was a lifelong Catholic who at first was reluctant to become a celebrity impersonator despite the obvious physical similarities and the encouragement of family and friends. "It took me about five years to get up enough courage," he told the Orange County Register in 1987.

Sept. 15, 1987: Hundreds of thousands of people filled Los Angeles streets to greet Pope John Paul II on his 10-day U.S. tour. "Their progress marked by the rippling flights of yellow and white balloons, the Popemobile and its beaming, white-robed passenger sailed through seven miles of Los Angeles' streets ... flanked all the way -- through high-tech and low-income vistas -- by singing, cheering thousands of faithful," The Times said. "From his arrival, when drivers ...

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the silver-haired senior spokesman for the Vatican and longtime confidant of the late Pope John Paul II, resigned Tuesday after more than two decades in the post. Navarro-Valls, who turns 70 this fall, will be replaced by Father Federico Lombardi, a Jesuit who runs Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Center. Navarro-Valls' retirement had been expected for some time, as Pope Benedict XVI, elected nearly 15 months ago, assembles his own team of advisors.

The Vatican announced Friday that it was disciplining the Mexican founder of an influential Roman Catholic order after an investigation into decades of allegations that the now elderly priest sexually abused seminarians and boys in his care. Father Marcial Maciel appears to be the highest-ranking priest to be sanctioned in an abuse case.