Religion

Pope John Paul celebrates turning 84

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II turned 84 Tuesday, beaming as well-wishers sang Happy Birthday and thanking God for the "gift of life."

The frail pontiff insisted on keeping up his regular busy schedule but set aside time for a birthday lunch and cake with his closest aides.

The occasion also was marked by publication of his latest book, which mixes memories from his native Poland, a touch of self-criticism and a defense of priestly celibacy.

"It will be a regular working day and above all a thanks to God for the gift of life," said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. He reported that the Vatican had been flooded with birthday greetings for John Paul.

John Paul, who marked 25 years in the papacy in October and has since become the third-longest serving pope in history, is pushing ahead despite Parkinson's disease and hip and knee ailments. He plans a two-day trip to Switzerland early next month, his first foreign travel since a pilgrimage to Slovakia in September.

On Tuesday, he received visiting American bishops and Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso of Portugal, whose delegation broke into Happy Birthday in Portuguese. The pope was clearly pleased, smiling and raising his right hand to bless the group.

In the evening, John Paul held a meeting with the president of Poland, and the visiting delegation sang a traditional Polish mountain song to mark John Paul's birthday.

Navarro-Valls, speaking to reporters at the Rome book launch, said two other trips are on the drawing boards this year, one to the Marian shrine in Lourdes, France, in mid August and another to a place he declined to name.

In bookstores in Italy and elsewhere, John Paul's latest literary work, Get Up, Let Us Go, went on sale. It is a sequel to Gift and Mystery, an account of the pontiff's early priesthood that was released in 1996.

It came out a decade after publication of the heavily autobiographical Crossing the Threshold of Hope, which sold 20-million copies around the world.

The latest book draws on the pope's years in Krakow, where - as Karol Wojtyla - he served as bishop and then archbishop, but also touches on his years since his election as the first Polish pope in 1978.

He recalls his passion for the theater and being told he would have been a "great actor" but said the suffering around him from World War II led him to abandon a career on the stage.

The pope said that those contesting celibacy have raised the issued of the loneliness for priests, but that he never felt lonely.

Italian publisher Mondadori says it is negotiating the rights for the English-language edition. The royalties will go into a special fund for charity, Navarro-Valls said.

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