Vatican City ? In remarks published Tuesday, a close aide of Pope John Paul II said that the pontiff was “in a bad way,” confirming the pope’s visible struggle with declining health. Vatican officials played down the statement, saying that the pontiff’s health had not worsened suddenly and that his busy October schedule of public appearances remained unchanged.

The German weekly Bunte quoted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as saying, “We should pray for the pope.” One of Ratzinger’s assistants, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, confirmed Ratzinger’s words, but said the comments were not meant to sound an alarm.

Ratzinger made his remarks on Sept. 22, when a group of German brewers requested a private audience with John Paul, Gaenswein said.

Ratzinger, who is German, explained to the brewers that an audience would not be possible given the need for the pope to conserve his energy.

“We all have to pray for the pope,” Gaenswein said. “That is something that can be said anytime.”

The pope’s appointment of 31 cardinals Sunday was perhaps the most telling sign of the steady deterioration of John Paul’s health, Vatican analysts said. Originally, the cardinals were scheduled to be named early next year. By acting now, the pope ensured that he would choose the final batch of cardinals who would select his successor.

The entire body of cardinals — more than 190 — is scheduled to meet with the pope in Vatican City on Oct. 21, at the end of anniversary celebrations marking his 25 years as the leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics.

It would be a convenient time for him to resign — the cardinal electors could quickly move into a conclave, the closed meeting inside Vatican City during which popes are elected. But longtime Vatican watchers said they thought resignation at this point was unlikely. “He is a soldier. He would leave only if he can’t function in any useful way as pope. He would rather fight to the end,” said Giorgio Rumi, a Catholic historian and columnist for L’Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference.

One fear in parts of the church is that the pope could go into a coma and create a kind of constitutional crisis in the Vatican. There is no equivalent of a vice president and no mechanism to replace a pope if he is still alive, however incapacitated.

German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, right, adjusts his skull cap after congratulating Pope John Paul II on his 83rd birthday during a solemn ceremony to proclaim four new saints in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The visit was May 18, and Tuesday, Ratzinger was quoted in a German magazine interview as saying that John Paul II was in a bad way and needed prayers.

In such a situation, major decisions requiring a papal signature, such as the appointment of bishops, could not be made. “I worry that we would be left rudderless,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the Catholic magazine America, published in the United States.