ITALY: Pope John Paul II continues to make a satisfactory recovery at Rome's Gemelli hospital from the tracheotomy operation undergone last Thursday, according to the Vatican.
In a brief medical bulletin issued yesterday, Vatican senior spokesman Dr Joaquín Navarro-Valls, said that not only is the 84-year-old Pope recovering satisfactorily but that he has also begun "exercises" intended to help his breathing and speech.
"The Holy Father's post-operative phase is taking place without complications. His general condition and biological parameters continue to be good.
"The Holy Father is eating regularly, spends some hours in an armchair and has begun exercises to rehabilitate his breathing and phonation," the statement said.
The bulletin gave no indication as to how long the Pope will remain in hospital.
However, all the medical indicators would suggest that his hospitalisation will this time be a matter of weeks rather than days.
When the Pope was hospitalised on February 1st, suffering from influenza and related breathing difficulties, he stayed just nine days at the Gemelli hospital.
An indication that the Pope will this time spend rather longer came yesterday from the Vatican's "health" minister, Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who told the Roman daily newspaper, La Repubblica: "I don't know how long he will stay in hospital, his doctors will decide that. But in cases like this you cannot be too careful.
"If I might be permitted, I would advise his medical team to be in less of a hurry to get him back to the Vatican, at least by comparison with the last time when his quick departure from the Gemelli came as a bit of a surprise."
Since the Pope's most recent hospitalisation last Thursday, the tone of Vatican medical bulletins about his condition have been generally positive.
Those sceptics who questioned the optimistic tone of the Vatican statements were taken by surprise on Sunday when the Pope made a brief and unscheduled appearance at the window of his 10th floor private ward during the Angelus blessing.