Sofia, Bulgaria ? He is wheeled around in a cart, sits slumped in his chair looking exhausted and reads only small portions of his speeches, heavily slurring his words.

A four-day visit to Bulgaria has put Pope John Paul II’s deteriorating physical condition in full view, alarming his hosts. But aides say he intends to continue his travels, feeling encouraged by outpourings of affection he receives.

The 82-year-old pope on Saturday made a pilgrimage to one of Bulgaria’s holiest sites, visiting a 1,000-year-old monastery in an effort to end a millennium of distrust between Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

It remains one of the unfulfilled goals of his 24-year papacy and one he intends to pursue.

He traveled by helicopter to the southern town of Rila for a visit to the Rila Monastery, not far from the tomb of St. Ivan Rilsky, patron saint of the Bulgarian people.

John Paul sat hunched over and one of his hands shook as he read just a few scattered lines of his remarks with badly slurred speech before letting an aide deliver the rest.

The visit, the pope’s 96th foreign tour, has been a major test of his stamina. His speech is often slurred and his hands tremble symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and he walks with difficulty because of knee and hip ailments. In Rila, it took him a minute to shuffle 50 feet to pay his respects at the tomb of the late King Boris III.

The Vatican has confirmed that the pope will travel in July to Canada, Mexico and Guatemala. He is to visit his native Poland in August. As if to end speculation that John Paul might decide to retire while in Poland and remain in his homeland, the Vatican said a stop in Croatia in September for a beatification is in preparation.

“The condition of the pope is visible to all,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters Saturday. “He will continue to travel within these limitations. The pope notes the big show of affection wherever he goes, and this encourages him.”

However, one of the Orthodox churchmen who welcomed John Paul expressed alarm at the pope’s condition.

Metropolitan Simeon praised the pontiff’s mission and goals but said: “I think people around him should tell him he has to stop. He is suffering like Christ.”

In Rila, John Paul praised the monks’ work as “a great gift for the whole church” and spoke of “the richness of Eastern monastic spirituality.”

There are only about 80,000 Catholics in Bulgaria; most live near the second-largest city of Plovdiv, where the pope will celebrate an open-air Mass today.