VATICAN: To the surprise of many, ailing Pope John Paul II yesterday made a brief and silent appearance at the window of his 10th-floor private ward in Rome's Gemelli hospital at the end of Sunday's traditional Angelus blessing.
Sitting in a wheelchair, the Pope waved to the large crowd gathered at the hospital before making the sign of the cross by way of offering his apostolic blessing.
Looking tired, but sitting steady and upright, the Pope appeared only briefly at the window. At one point, whether out of discomfort or by way of communication with those gathered outside, the Pope appeared to point to his throat, indicating the tracheotomy operation he underwent on Thursday.
That same operation, intended to relieve acute breathing difficulties, means that for the time being, the Pope is unable to speak. For that reason it had been widely predicted that yesterday, for the first time in his 26-year-long pontificate, he would take no part in the traditional Sunday blessing.
However, not for the first time, "God's showman" defied expectations with his brief but symbolic appearance at his hospital window.
Earlier the Vatican's Sostituto or Interior Minister, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, had read the Pope's brief message to pilgrims gathered in the freezing rain in St Peter's Square.
Saying that the Pope "is following us from the Gemelli", Archbishop Sandri read the message "in the name of and on the instructions of the Pope".
"The current climate of penitence of Lent helps us to better understand the suffering which one way or other concerns us all.Only looking to Christ and following him with patient trust shall we understand how all form of human pain includes a divine promise of salvation and happiness.
"I want this message of comfort and hope to reach everyone, especially those who are going through difficult times, who are suffering in body and soul," went the message.
Speaking briefly to reporters after yesterday's Angelus, Prof Rodolfo Proietti of the medical team in charge of the Pope at the Gemelli said that "things could not have gone better", in reference to the Pope's brief public appearance. Asked, however, about the risk of infection to which ailing John Paul II is now exposed because of the tracheotomy, Prof Proietti declined to respond.
Unofficial reports over the weekend suggested the Pope's post-operative recovery is progressing well and that he is sleeping comfortably and eating solid foods with a good appetite. Italian Lower House speaker Ferdinando Casini, who visited the Pope on Saturday, told reporters that the Pope's long-time private secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, had given him a generally upbeat picture of the Pope's overall health.
Mr Casini, however, confessed that he himself had not seen the Pope but had been received in the ante-camera of the Pope's private ward by Mgr Dziwisz. Due to concern about infections, the number of people directly admitted into the Pope's presence has been limited to the bare essential.
When the windows of his hospital room were opened up yesterday, the only people visible other than the Pope were the Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Mgr Dziwisz and the Vatican's photographer.
A second medical bulletin is due to be issued this morning.