The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 15, 2003, Page 4, Image 4
Pope to continue mission despite infirmity
BY NICOLE WINFIELD
TUB ASSOCIATED PRBSS
VATICAN CITY - Although
speech is becoming harder for
him, Pope John Paul II still can
carry out his mission and shows
no sign of resigning, several car
dinals said Tuesday.
Papal spokesman Joaquin
Navarro-Valls hinted a time might
come when the Vatican has to
reevaluate how to cope with a pon
tiff whose skill as a communica
tor, a hallmark of his 25-year pa
pacy, is clearly declining.
“I work very close with him,
and I see his mind, his capacity for
projecting things, for putting new
goals, which is absolutely intact,”
Navarro-Valls said in an inter; .
view with ABC’s “Good Morning
America.” “So the problem is not
there - at least it’s not there yet.”
When asked whether the
Vatican would have to deal with
the problem later if it became nec
essary, he said: “I suppose so.”
John Paul has had trouble
speaking for several years as a re
sult of Parkinson’s disease, which
causes him to slur his words.
Recently, however, he has occa
sionally been unable to deliver his
full speeches, often only saying a
line ortwo before turning the text
over to an aide to finish.
The change was most evident
during his September visit to
Slovakia, where for the first time
in over 100 foreign trips the pope
was unable to complete his arrival
speech. As recently as last week,
however, John Paul managed to
get through his comments, albeit
with great difficulty.
Cardinals who are gathering in
Rome for celebrations surround
ing John Paul’s 25th anniversary
as pope on Thursday said that
even though he has such difficulty
speaking, he shows no sign of step
ping down or turning over leader
ship of the Roman Catholic
Church.
“He still seems to be able to do
it,” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick,
archbishop of Washington, D.C.,
said in an interview Tuesday. “As
long as God lets him do it, he’s go
ing to continue doing it.”
When asked whether the pope
might step aside if he can no
longer speak, McCarrick said he
couldn’t put himself in the mind
of the pope.
“I do believe that this Holy
Father is so much in the hands of
God, he’s going to let God tell
him.”
John Paul himself has made
clear he does not intend to resign,
saying he will carry out his mis
sion to the end.
Portuguese Cardinal Jose
Saraiva Martins, head of the
Congregation of the Causes of
, Saints, told the Portuguese news
paper Diario de Noticias that only
the pope can decide what he would
do if he loses the ability to com
municate.
“Evidently it would have to be
evaluated, it would have conse
quences, but it wouldn’t be funda
mental for the pope’s work,” he
was quoted as saying. “The word
is very important for those who
govern, but the Holy See is gov
erned more by the head than by
the word.”
Cardinal Pio Laghi of Italy, a
top papal envoy, said that even as
John Paul loses his ability to
speak, he remains lucid and able.
“He doesn’t feel incapacitated
at all,” the AGI news agency quot
ed Laghi as saying Tuesday. “He
governs with his mind and his
heart.”
, McCarrick conceded that the
pope’s inability to communicate
effectively must be frustrating for
a man who appeared on stage in
his youth, can speak several lan
guages and has always made a
point of addressing the faithful in
their native tongues.
“It must be so hard for him,”
McCarrick said. “Because I re
member 25 years ago, he strode
across the stage of the world and
he was so eloquent and he could
speak so beautifully in so many
languages. It must be so hard, but
he keeps going, (saying) ‘Give me
the next page, I’m going to read it.’”
Study finds tanning lamps
increase skin-cancer risk
BY PAUL RECER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Regularly bak
ing to a golden tan under sun
lamps can increase the risk of ma
lignant melanoma, a sometimes
fatal skin cancer, and the younger
a woman starts the greater the
risk, a study says.
The study, which analyzed the
lifestyles and melanoma risks for
women between the ages of 30 and
50, found what the researchers
said was the strongest evidence
yet that artificial sun tanning can
be dangerous to healthy skin.
Melanoma risk is highest
among fair-skinned people in
Australia, New Zealand, Europe
and North America. Since the
1950s, the rate of the skin cancer
has tripled in Norway and
Sweden, where light skin is com
mon. About 50,000 cases of
melanoma are diagnosed annually
in the United States and about
7,500 people die of the disease each
year, according to American
Academy of Dermatology officials.
In the study, appearing this
week in the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute, an in
ternational group of researchers
analyzed data from the Women’s
Lifestyle and Health Cohort Study
in Norway and Sweden. In 1991
and 1992,106,379 women complet
ed extensive questionnaires about
their exposure to sunlight and to
artificial tanning. In 1999, the re
searchers rechecked the women’s
cancer status using the national
health registries in Norway and
Sweden.
The researchers found 187 cases
of malignant melanoma diagnosed
among the study group during the
eight-year follow-up period.
They found that women of any
age or hair color who regularly
visited tanning salons once or
more per month increased their
chance of developing melanoma
by 55 percent.
The risk was highest for young
adults. Compared with women
who never used a solarium, wom
en who reported using artificial
tanning systems once or more per
month when they were between
the ages of 20 and 29 increased
their risk of melanoma by about
150 percent.
“Our results provide stronger
evidence than those of other stud
ies that solarium use is associat
ed with an increased risk of
melanoma,” the authors of the
study wrote.
“This is just one of many papers
that have suggested a link between
indoor tanning and the develop
ment of melanoma skin cancer,”
said Dr. James M. Spencer, vice
chairman of dermatology at the
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in
New York. He said studies have
also linked artificial tanning to
basal cell and squamous cell car
cinoma, two common types of skin
cancer.
Spencer said it is well known
that ultraviolet light causes skin
cancer.
“Whether you get it at the in
door tanning parlor or at the
beach, (UV light) is a carcinogen,”
he said.
People may have good reasons
to work and play in natural sun
light, where they can protect
themselves with sun block,
Spencer acknowledged. However,
“there is no compelling reason to
go to a tanning salon,” he said. “It
is just for a cosmetic tan that fades
in a couple of weeks and can cause
you a lifetime of trouble.”
Melanoma is virtually 100 per
cent curable as long as it is limited
to the skin. If allowed to grow,
though, the cancer can penetrate
to blood vessels and the lymphatic
system and then spread rapidly
throughout the body.
“If it spreads to the lymph
nodes or to the internal organs, it
is time to put your affairs in or
der,” said Spencer. “Once it is
spread, there’s nothing to do.
There are treatments that might
buy some time, but that doesn’t
cure anybody.”
The incidence of melanoma has
increased rapidly in the last half
century, and Spencer, an official
with the American Academy of
Dermatology, said about 50,000
Americans will be diagnosed with
it this year.
In the study, researchers also
found that the risk of melanoma
from sun exposure was about
twice as high for blondes than for
women with dark brown or black
hair. For red-haired women, the
risk was about four times as high,
the researchers said.
The presence of irregularly
shaped moles, called nevi, also in
creases the risk of melanoma can
cer, the study found. Women with
a single nevus on the leg were
about twice as likely to develop
the disease. With more than sev
en nevi, the risk went up about 300
percent, the researchers report.
Nevi are moles that arise from
the pigment-producing cells of the
skin. Those considered of most
concern for cancer are asymmet
rical in shape with ragged edges,
have different shades of color and
are larger than about a quarter
inch.
Panel to rehear
Wofford student’s
deportation case
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GREENVILLE, S.C. — An immi
gration panel has granted a
Wofford College student a rare
chance to have his case against de
lo no
their rehearing.
The panel’s decision has the po
tential to be a landmark one, possi
bly marking a shift in how the
Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services deals with de
nnv’to V* o v»/-1
again.
The panel
will rehear the
case of Hitesh
Tolani, 21, and
his mother,
Jaya, on Jan. 21
in Atlanta and
“It’s an opportunity to
set a new national
standard”
BUZZ BERWELL
HITESH AND JAYATOLANI'S GREENVILLE
ATTORNEY
ships, such as
the Tolani’s
case, at the ap
peals level,
Berwell said.
“It’s an op
portunity to set
a new national
could decide whether the two will
be deported to India after living
for nearly two decades in the
United States.
“We take encouragement that
they are trying to open the door,”
said the Tolanis’ Greenville attor
ney Buzz Berwell, who noted that
two other cases have been re
manded since the Tolanis won
standard,” said Berwell, who, as
part of the law firm Nelson,
Mullins, Riley and Scarborough,
has taken on the Tolanis’ case for
free.
Meanwhile, Hitesh Tolani is
wrapping up his senior year at
Wofford and awaiting final word
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