Weak Pope recovering from emergency surgery

ROME - Pope John Paul lay in hospital with a tube in his throat to help him breathe on Friday after emergency surgery, and Catholics the world over prayed for the recovery of their spiritual leader.

The 84-year-old was taken to a Rome hospital for the second time this month on Thursday with a relapse of influenza.

In the evening, doctors performed a tracheotomy -- cutting a hole in his windpipe -- to stop him choking and let air flow directly to his lungs.

The Vatican said it would issue its next health bulletin at 12:30 p.m. (6:30 a.m. EST).

Doctors at Gemelli hospital said on Thursday night that the tracheotomy had been a success, but there has been no word since on the Pope's condition.

Italian news agency Ansa reported that the Pope, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease, was breathing with the help of a respirator. It said he was awake after spending a calm night.

Medical experts said the operation to open the Pope's throat showed he had been in danger and warned there was a "significant likelihood" he could develop pneumonia.

"A severe pneumonia can easily be life-threatening in someone of his age and condition," said Dr Paul Larson, assistant professor of neurosurgery at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's top aide went to see the Pope immediately after the surgery on Thursday and said the Pontiff had waved to him.

"He was well and calm," Gianni Letta said. "When I came into the Gemelli I was very worried but now I am leaving very reassured," he told reporters.

As Catholics around the world prayed, leaders who acknowledge the Polish Pope's towering role in the events of the 20th century -- including helping the fall of communism in his native Poland -- expressed their affection and apprehension.

"The Holy Father is in our thoughts and prayers, and we wish him a speedy recovery and return to the service of his Church and all humanity," President Bush said.

SILENCED

While the Pope is alive he is the only leader of the Roman Catholic Church and its 1.1 billion followers. The bureaucracy can run without him but his aides have no major decision-making powers.

But the man known as the Church's great communicator will not be able to speak for some weeks, doctors said, and even then he may need a special device to help him form sounds.

"It's very worrying. He's just a human being even if he's an incredible individual," said hospital worker Tiziana on her way out of the clinic's chapel where she had prayed for the Pope.

Letta told reporters the Pope had joked with doctors ahead of the tracheotomy after being told that it would be a small operation. "Depends what you mean by small," he had said.

The struggle to breathe is the latest health battle that John Paul has fought since he assumed the papal throne in 1978.

One of the most active popes in history, he played a hand in the fall of communism, spoke out against the war in Iraq, fought for human rights and called for debt relief for poor countries.

But many have criticized him for his conservative views on contraception, gay marriage and women priests.

His recurrent illnesses over the last few years have raised questions as to whether he is fit to rule or should resign.

Vatican officials have said he is very much in control and that any resignation would be "up to (his) conscience." In his weekly address on Sunday, the Pope said the call to "look after the flock" was "particularly alive" in him.

The picture of the white-clad Pope slumped in his throne laboriously waving at the faithful has become a regular feature of Sundays at the Vatican -- a far cry from the youthful Karol Wojtyla who was nicknamed "God's athlete" in his early papacy.

The Pope spent 10 days in hospital earlier this month, struck by 'flu. Thursday's return was the 10th time he has been hospitalised since becoming Pope, including once after he was shot during an attempted assassination in St Peter's Square.

- REUTERS