The Vatican has denied reports that Pope John Paul II is dead. Italian media reported this evening that the Pope’s electrocardiograph has “gone flat”. However, a Vatican spokesman dismissed the reports, saying there was no such machine in the Holy See.
Sky Italia also quoted Vatican sources as saying the 84-year-old Pope's brain and heart are still functioning.
The Vatican's health minister has conceded that the Pope is "in agony" and "near death".
The Vatican earlier issued a statement saying Pope John Paul II's breathing "has become shallow" and his kidney function is deteriorating. The statement said he was suffering from heart and kidney problems and that his overall condition had been "notably compromised" since this morning.
"The general conditions and cardiocirculatory conditions of the Holy Father have further worsened," the statement says.
"A gradual worsening of arterial hypertension has been noted and breathing has become shallow. The clinical picture indicates cardiocirculatory and renal insufficiency.
"The biological parameters are notably compromised. The Holy Father - with visible participation - is joining in the continual prayers of those assisting him."
The 84-year-old Pope received the blessing for the dying after his health suddenly deteriorated overnight, drawing anguished prayers today from Catholics around the globe reluctant to accept his end may be near.
"The Holy Father - with visible participation - is joining in the continual prayers of those assisting him," said Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
People have been flocking to churches across the world to light candles and pray for the Pontiff. In Dublin's Pro-Cathederal, hundreds of people, including the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, have gathered this evening.
Churches in the Polish capital Warsaw and the southern city of Krakow where Wojtyla was archbishop filled with worshippers.
Groups of faithful gathered in St Peter's Square, some gazing up at the papal apartments. Cardinals were summoned to the Pope's bedside to say their farewells in person. "What I'm doing now is praying that the crossing to the other life may be painless and peaceful," said Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop of Brussels-Mechelen in Belgium.
"In these conditions there is no longer any hope and there is a loss of consciousness," anaesthetist Vincenzo Carpino told Italy's Ansa news agency. Mr Navarro-Valls earlier today fought back tears when he told reporters the Pontiff had celebrated Mass from his bed as dawn broke.
The Pope told aides he did not want to return to hospital, where he spent several weeks before Easter after breathing trouble. "The fact he has not gone back (shows) he is serenely carrying the cross and ready to give up and to say 'It is finished'," said his former private secretary the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr John Magee.
Underscoring the sombre mood, Italian political parties halted campaigning for regional elections this weekend and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled all appointments.
The Pope has grown steadily weaker over the past decade. He has been seriously ill for most of the past two months and failed to recover from recent throat surgery aimed at helping him breathe. He has been unable to speak in public since he left hospital on March 13th, with a tube to help him breathe in his windpipe. Historians say one of his legacies will remain his role in the fall of communism in Europe in 1989.