Pope misses Sunday prayers for first time

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul will remain in his Rome hospital room on Sunday while for the first time in his papacy an aide will preside at his weekly Angelus prayer and bless crowds for him miles away at the Vatican.

A Vatican statement said the 84-year-old Pope, left temporarily voiceless by throat surgery to ease a breathing crisis, had delegated everything to an aide.

On Saturday night Ansa news agency, citing hospital sources, said doctors considered his overall condition as satisfactory. It said blood tests had shown no early warning signs of possible infection, something potentially fatal for a man of his age.

The Vatican said the Pope, who already suffers from advanced Parkinson's Disease, would "join" the Angelus prayer from his hospital room. He was expected to watch on television.

By saying the Pope would stay in his room while the ceremony took place at the Vatican, some 2.5 miles away, the statement indicated he would not appear at his window. The Angelus usually takes place wherever the Pope is on Sunday.

Even on May 17, 1981, four days after he was nearly killed in an assassination attempt, the Pope managed to whisper a blessing via radio from his hospital bed.

When he was in hospital earlier this month, the Pope was strong enough to sit at his window and deliver the blessing himself after an aide read his greetings.

It was not clear whether there would be a video link between his hospital room and St Peter's Square at noon on Sunday so the crowds could at least see the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, the Vatican's deputy secretary of state, will preside for the Pope and deliver a blessing from the steps of St Peter's Basilica on his behalf.

"The Holy Father will join in the reading of the Angelus prayer from his room in the Gemelli Hospital," the Vatican said.

L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's newspaper, said in a banner headline that Sunday's prayer would be "An Angelus of Hope" for the Pontiff and the entire Christian world.

The Pope was rushed back to hospital for the second time this month on Thursday, causing the world to wonder if one of history's most significant papacies was about to end.

HOPE AND TRANQUILLITY

While a parade of cardinals and politicians have gone to the hospital to sign the visitors' register, nearly all of them have spoken to aides and doctors and have not seen the Pope.

Pierferdinando Casini, speaker of Italy's lower house of parliament, visited the hospital on Saturday morning and said he found an atmosphere of "hope and tranquillity."

Catholics around the world, however, have been fearing the worst. From the Pope's native Poland to the Philippines and the United States, people have held special Masses for him.

Catholic medical students and priests planned to hold a prayer service in the Gemelli hospital chapel on Saturday night.

The Vatican has been at pains to calm nerves and said he was well enough on Friday morning, about 12 hours after the tracheotomy operation, to have breakfast and that he was breathing without any mechanical help.

Medical experts on Parkinson's Disease and throat ailments said it could be weeks before the Pope would be able to speak again and said a man of his age and frailty could easily develop pneumonia after having a tracheotomy.

News agency Ansa said the Pope was on strong antibiotics as a precautionary measure.

The Pope, who is also racked with arthritis, has bounced back from numerous health scares as well as the near-miss assassination attempt, but this month's back-to-back hospitalizations are considered his most serious health setback.

Modern medicine has lengthened this papacy beyond what might have been possible decades ago but despite his illness, the Pope feels deeply he should continue to "look after the flock."

Some have questioned whether the Pope should resign instead of ruling for life as Popes have done for at least the past 700 years. But churchmen say he is still very much in charge and is taking all the Vatican's big decisions.

- REUTERS