Many Catholics support decision not to resign

As prayers for the health of Pope John Paul II fell from the lips of the faithful yesterday, chanted by priests on altars and whispered by parishioners going about their day, Catholics began to consider once again whether their ailing leader should resign.

The issue resurfaced this week, as the 84-year-old pope recovered in the hospital from a tracheostomy performed Thursday to help him breathe. Although his doctors urged him not to speak, John Paul II appeared to be recuperating well yesterday, breathing on his own and free of pneumonia.

The pope has maintained that he will not step down, despite his struggle with Parkinson's disease and other health problems that have slurred his speech and robbed him of the ability to stand easily. Most Catholics interviewed yesterday said they support that decision and trust him to lead the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, even if his health worsens.

''I think he should stay," said Mary Donovan, 66, after Mass at St. Anthony Shrine near Downtown Crossing yesterday. ''He's a strong man mentally. He'll be able to say Mass. He can go on [being pope] indefinitely if that's God's will."

The Rev. Miroslaw Podymniak, pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa, a predominantly Polish church in South Boston, said his parishioners have not even broached the idea of the pope's resignation with him.

''We believe the pope wants to stay to the very last day," said Podymniak. ''When the pope was elected, Polish people promised to support him as a pope. I think we Poles, we want to keep this promise real."

Lately, the priest said, his parishioners have been asking him every day for news of the pope's health. At Mass yesterday morning and at an evening Stations of the Cross devotion, Podymniak and his parishioners prayed for the pope's health.

''If he someday resigned, I would understand that," Podymniak said. ''But it's not in the tradition of the church."

Like the South Boston priest, many Catholics said they deferred to the pope on the important decision of whether he can continue to lead the church. At a Mass said yesterday at St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center, Thang Nguyen, 37, of Charlestown said he was saddened by the pope's health problems.

''If he wants to resign, it's up to him," said Nguyen, who was among the throngs that packed Boston Common for an outdoor Mass when the pope visited the city in 1979. ''If God wants him to do it, then he will do it."

Auxilia Goncalves, 48, a Cape Verdean floor supervisor at the Sheraton Boston, also argued that only the pope can decide whether he should step aside.

''We have to wait for his will, his [willingness] to give it up," she said. ''If he doesn't give it up, I don't think we should take it away."

But Claire Puglisi, 74, who lives in the South End and also attended Mass at St. Francis yesterday, argued that the pope's illness may be a message from God that he should resign.

Puglisi heard the pope speak in 1986, when she took her son, then dying of cancer, to see him. She was so inspired by the pope, she said, that she has since attended Mass daily.

But now, she said, his health has interfered with his work.

''He can't really speak very well," Puglisi said. ''I feel sorry for him. He's having such a hard time that I feel kind of embarrassed, to tell you the truth."

Rosaria Salerno, 69, Boston city clerk and a parishioner at St. Cecilia in the Back Bay, called for the pope to resign if his health continues to deteriorate.

Salerno met the pope many years ago, and remembers him as full of energy. But her memory of that visit lies in contrast with the pope's current frailty.

''When he was hospitalized for the second time, it increased my feeling that he's in the homestretch now," she said. ''He's 84 and he's been frail for a long time. He appears to be moving toward the exit of this life and into the next one."

Still, some Catholics interviewed said they were inspired by the pope's struggle to continue working even as his body fails.

''He's done so much," said Steven Virgilio, 43, a construction worker who slipped into the St. Francis Mass during his lunch break. ''Even sick, he continues. Watching him keep going, it gives you strength."

But Virgilio was not willing to pass judgment on whether the pope should resign. ''That's God's decision," he said.

For some younger Catholics, the idea of a new pope is daunting. The Rev. Walter Cuenin, pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton, has been talking to some of his parishioners who have never known a pope other than John Paul II.

''For the younger people, they've never thought of him as not being there," Cuenin said. ''Suddenly they're faced with the fact that, if not in the near future, his death will be a reality. I try to put it in context that every one of us, we all have a limited time."

Globe correspondents Justin Aucoin, Jack Encarnacao, Cyra Masters, and Glenn Yoder contributed to this report. Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com