Pope delights faithful at hospital window

A frail Pope John Paul II reappeared today at a window of the hospital treating him for his latest health crisis, giving the world its second glimpse of him since he was rushed back to the clinic with breathing trouble 11 days ago.

Wearing his white vestments, the 84-year-old Pope waved and made the sign of the cross to several hundred cheering pilgrims who gathered in the damp chill at a small square with a view of his 10th-floor suite at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital.

The Pope sat behind the closed window, repeatedly raising his arms to bless the crowd, but he did not speak.

John Paul has been undergoing breathing and speech therapy at the clinic a few miles from the Vatican after undergoing surgery on February 24 to insert a breathing tube in his windpipe.

With the Pope able to say only a few words with difficulty, the Vatican tapped Archbishop Leonardo Sandri – an Argentine from the Holy See’s secretary of state office who has become the Pope’s official voice for the public – to again read out the Angelus and deliver the blessing to believers gathered at St Peter’s.

“Again today I would like to renew my expression of gratitude for all those signs of affection that have reached me,” the Pope said in a greeting read out by Sandri.

“I am thinking, in particular, of the numerous cardinals, priests and groups of faithful, of ambassadors and of the ecumenical delegations that have come to the Gemelli Polyclinic in these days,” John Paul’s message said.

“I desire to give special recognition for the closeness of believers of other religions, chiefly Jews and Muslims. Some of them have wanted to come and pray here at the hospital. This for me is a comforting sign, for which I give thanks to God.”

The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano captured the anticipation of the faithful with a front-page headline: ”The burning wait for that blessing hand”.

“Illness doesn’t stop him,” it said.

John Paul’s traditional Sunday noon appearance at his studio window overlooking St Peter’s Square to give a blessing and offer greetings in several languages usually draws thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans.

Yesterday, the Holy See reinforced the emerging new image of an alert Pope staying abreast of world affairs and attending to church business despite his frailty and his second breathing crisis in a month.

The Vatican said he sent messages of condolence to Italy’s prime minister and the family of the Italian intelligence agent killed by US fire in Iraq while escorting an Italian hostage to freedom.

The victim’s brother is a priest who serves on a Vatican advisory board, Vatican Radio reported.

A written statement by the Pope also was delivered to university students in Rome. “I cannot be present among you, but you are just as close to me with affection and prayer,” the Pope’s message said.

He called the gathering an “important moment of prayer and reflection” before World Youth Day in August in Cologne, Germany.

While the Vatican says the pope still plans to attend the German event, it hasn’t announced a date for his hospital discharge, even with the approach of the solemn Easter season.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday on March 20 and culminates in Easter on March 27. The traditional schedule of papal appearances for that period is a gruelling one, including a Good Friday cross procession at the Colosseum.

The Pope’s overall health and recovery are complicated by Parkinson’s disease, which causes gradual loss of muscle control and already had made speaking difficult before his latest breathing trouble. He also suffers from crippling hip and knee ailments.

John Paul was taken by ambulance to Gemelli with breathing spasms on February 1 and was released on February 10, only to be rushed back on February 24 for the throat surgery.