Pope offers blessings from hospital window
ROME – Pope John Paul II looked frail but alert as he silently waved from his hospital window and made the sign of the cross to a cheering throng, marking his second such Sunday appearance since being rushed back to the clinic for throat surgery to ease a breathing problem.
Roman Catholic faithful who gathered under the pope’s 10th-floor suite at Gemelli Polyclinic shouted his name. Those watching on a giant screen at St. Peter’s Square began dancing at the sight of the pontiff.
The 84-year-old pope said nothing from behind the window, kept shut to keep out the damp chill.
The Vatican, burnishing a new image of the pope as attentive and in command despite his Parkinson’s disease and breathing troubles, carefully scripted Sunday’s appearance. John Paul made a surprise showing at the same window a week ago.
Vatican television first showed the pope slumped in his wheeled throne in his suite while watching a widescreen TV as Archbishop Leonardo Sandri of Argentina – John Paul’s public voice since his hospitalization – read the weekly Angelus prayer and blessing to the faithful across town at St. Peter’s.
Minutes later, the blinds over his window opened and a cheer went up from the crowd of about 500 onlookers as John Paul came into view. His white robes concealed his throat, and it was unclear whether the breathing tube doctors inserted in his windpipe after he was rushed by ambulance to Gemelli on Feb. 24 remained in place.
The pope seemed to perk up as he raised his arms to bless the crowd.
The pope spent 10 days at Gemelli for an earlier bout of breathing trouble and was released Feb. 10, only to be rushed back two weeks later for throat surgery. He since has been undergoing breathing and speech therapy.
Although the Vatican has not set a date for his release, it has suggested he might be discharged in time for Easter on March 27.
In his hometown of Wadowice, Poland, residents held special prayers for John Paul and signed a book of greetings to be delivered to him this week.