Hopes rise that Pope will leave hospital for Easter

Catholics are awaiting possible word from the Vatican on whether Pope John Paul II could make a strong enough recovery to participate in ceremonies this month culminating in Easter, the most important date on the Christian calendar.

The latest medical update from the Vatican on the Pope was expected to be issued around midday today.

Although the Vatican has not set a date for his release, it has suggested he might be discharged from hospital in time for Easter, on March 27.

For a second straight Sunday, the 84-year-old pontiff, who was sent to the hospital with breathing problems twice last month, made a silent appearance at a window of his 10th floor suite in the Gemelli Polyclinic.

His latest stay in hospital began on February 24, only two weeks after he was discharged following treatment for the same problem – larynx difficulties making it harder to breathe.

John Paul, described as a “good patient” by his spokesman, has been having breathing and speech lessons following a February 24 tracheotomy – surgery to cut a hole in his throat to help breathing.

Faithful outside the hospital yesterday cheered when the pontiff waved and gave his blessing, repeatedly raising his hands, at noon, the same hour when he traditionally appears to crowds in St Peter’s Square from his Vatican studio window.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a German who is a close aide of the Pope, said yesterday that it was up to his doctors to determine when the pope would leave the hospital.

Doctors caring for the pope at Gemelli haven’t been speaking with reporters, though they often spoke during the Pope’s many other periods in hospital throughout his 26-year-old papacy.

Instead the Vatican has been issuing medical updates every few days.

Prelates and rank-and-file faithful have been making the pilgrimage to Gemelli in hopes of seeing the Pope or hearing news about his condition as well as giving his morale a boost.

For years, John Paul has had Parkinson’s, a progressive neurological disease which affects muscle control, making speech and physical movement difficult.

The increasing immobility, along with the stooped posture, suffered by Parkinson’s patients makes them highly vulnerable to medical complications such as breathing problems.’

John Paul’s increasingly physical limitations have fed debate over whether he should take the rare step of resigning.