WORLD : John Paul Suspends Audiences While He’s Recovering From Flu

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II is suffering from influenza and has suspended his audiences until he recovers, the Vatican announced today.

Assistant Vatican spokesman Msgr. Pietro Pennacchini, formally announcing the suspension of audiences because of the Pope’s illness, said he could not say when the audiences will be resumed.

Among papal audiences scheduled for today that had to be postponed or canceled was one with 50 members of a Chinese national circus performing in Rome and another with the head of the Jesuit Order, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, the spokesman said.

The Pope, 69, announced during a pastoral visit to a Rome church late Sunday that he had fallen victim to the epidemic of Chinese influenza that has swept Italy in recent weeks.