Pontiff Described As Energetic, Intense Rumors Of Frailty Called Ungrounded By People Who Met Him

Hundreds of thousands of people saw Pope John Paul II during his four days in metropolitan New York. For the most part, however, their view was from a distance, over the heads of the crowd and behind tight security barriers.

Still, a relative handful got to see the pontiff up close, meeting him eye to eye and shaking his hand. In interviews, several of these people - all leaders from other denominations invited to meet the pope Saturday night at John Cardinal O’Connor’s residence - offered a picture of the 75-year-old pontiff as energetic and engaging in one-on-one encounters, even after what had been a very long day.

The pope did show some signs of his age.

At least one person who met him noticed the tremor in his left hand, which the Vatican says developed about three years ago but for which no specific diagnosis has been made.

Two others said the pope looked somewhat tired, but they attributed that to his having been up for nearly 16 hours by the time they met him, a period during which he celebrated Mass for 125,000 people in Central Park, led prayers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and greeted crowds on Fifth Avenue.

Before his departure from Rome for the United States Wednesday, a Vatican spokesman said that the pope’s health was excellent and that he was fully recovered from a broken right thigh bone he suffered in April 1994.

“People keep saying he’s frail, but I don’t see him as that,” said the Rev. Joan Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, who met the pope as part of a group of nearly 30 Christian and Muslim leaders.

“You’d not describe him as robust, but considering the life he leads, he certainly has a lot of energy.”

“Bishop Richard Grein, the Episco pal Bishop of New York, attended the same meeting as Campbell and came away struck by the pope’s memory for names and faces. “I’m amazed by his ability to remember people that he met 20 years ago and to exchange pleasant words with everyone,” the bishop said.

At the meeting, he saw the pope greet an Orthodox Christian bishop by warmly recalling an earlier meeting the pontiff had had with the patriarch of the bishop’s church. “He was wholly present to each individual,” Bishop Grein said.

In a second meeting later that evening, Rabbi Arthur Schneier, spiritual leader of the Park East Synagogue, was one of about two dozen Jewish leaders to meet the pope in the cardinal’s parlor. “I must say, he was warm, he was alert, he was responsive - which is remarkable, with such an arduous schedule,” said Schneier, who met the pope on four previous occasions.