Pope won't appear during Sunday's prayers

Pope John Paul II will join in Sunday’s Angelus prayers from his hospital room but will not read them out, the Vatican said today as the pope recovered from a throat operation to ease a breathing crisis.

The Holy See made clear that the 84-year-old pontiff would not appear at a window at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital during Sunday’s blessing, a weekly tradition dear to the pope, and a Vatican official later confirmed there were no plans for a papal appearance.