CNS STORY: Vatican says pope in hospital 'few more days,' home for Palm Sunday

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CNS Story:

POPE-STAY Mar-10-2005 (750 words) xxxi

Vatican says pope in hospital 'few more days,' home for Palm Sunday

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II will spend "a few more days" in the hospital, his spokesman said March 10, but he will be back at the Vatican by March 20, Palm Sunday.

"The Holy Father, following the advice of his doctors, will extend his stay" in Rome's Gemelli hospital for "a few more days in order to complete his convalescence, which is progressing regularly," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters.

Pope John Paul was hospitalized Feb. 1-10 suffering from the flu, an inflammation of the throat and laryngeal spasms, which made it difficult for him to breathe.

He returned to the hospital Feb. 24 and underwent a tracheotomy to ease his breathing while his larynx healed. During the second hospitalization, the pope was undergoing rehabilitative therapy to help him breathe and speak with the tracheotomy tube still inserted through a hole in his throat.

Navarro-Valls was asked March 10 whether the pope was receiving any therapy at the hospital that would not be possible to provide at the Vatican.

"I do not think so, at this moment. In fact, the communique speaks of completing the phase of convalescence, not of a phase of therapy," he said.

The spokesman said the phrase about the pope being advised to "extend" his stay was not because an earlier release had been scheduled, but because "the pope wants to leave as soon as possible."

"I can confirm that the pope will pass Holy Week in the Vatican," the spokesman said, specifying that meant the pope would be home for Palm Sunday.

Navarro-Valls also said Pope John Paul would come to the window of his hospital room on the following Sunday, March 13, to greet and bless visitors after Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, a top aide, leads the midday recitation of the Angelus at the Vatican.

While he came to the window the previous two Sundays, Feb. 27 and March 6, the pope did not speak at all to the crowds gathered below his 10th-floor hospital room.

Asked if the pope would pronounce a blessing or say anything March 13, Navarro-Valls said: "I do not know. Sometimes I am the first to be surprised, like yesterday," March 9, when the pope -- in an unscheduled appearance -- came to his window to greet people who went to the hospital because his weekly general audience was cancelled.

The pope continues his working meetings at the hospital with top Vatican officials, "with whom he follows the life of the Holy See and the life of the church," the spokesman said.

While the Vatican March 8 released a list of cardinals who would take the pope's place as main celebrant of the Holy Week and Easter liturgies, Navarro-Valls said that once the pope returned to the Vatican, he would decide if he would attend any of the liturgies.

With the pope's release date still unsure, Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni announced March 9 that the city would honor Pope John Paul on his 85th birthday May 18 with a huge fireworks display.

"It will be as if every Roman was popping a bottle of champagne in his honor," the mayor said.

Veltroni said he had asked the pope's personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, what he thought of the idea of celebrating the pope's release from the hospital with a fireworks display.

"Then it became clear that the more beautiful moment would be May 18, his birthday, so that the pope could see this huge candle that Rome was lighting for him," the mayor said in an interview with the Catholic television station Telepace.

Henryk Wozniakowski, the Polish editor of the pope's new book, "Memory and Identity," told the Polish news agency PAP that he had been invited to Mass March 9 in the pope's 10th-floor suite at Gemelli hospital.

After celebrating the Mass, the pope -- still dressed in the purple vestments of Lent -- appeared at his window overlooking the hospital entrance to wave to and bless the crowds gathered there.

Wozniakowski said he was able to spend about five minutes with the pope before the Mass, and he said the pope spoke to him in a clear voice.

The editor said Pope John Paul personally signed two copies of the book for him and expressed his hope that people would read the book and think about its plea to learn from the horrors of the past and hold on to the values of faith.

END

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