Pope Is Taken to Hospital With Flu

Three days into a bad bout with the flu that made it hard for him to breathe, Pope John Paul II was rushed to a hospital late Tuesday after canceling most of his week’s appointments, the Vatican said.

Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Italian state TV network RAI that the pope had suffered a “breathing crisis” and was hospitalized for treatment. Another report said his throat was inflamed, his respiratory tract was infected, and he had a fever.

Navarro-Valls said the pope was not in intensive care but would undergo tests.

The “urgent” hospitalization was primarily a precaution, he said.

The 84-year-old pontiff suffers from a number of ailments, including a semi-crippling form of arthritis and Parkinson’s disease, but he has rarely been hospitalized. He has not missed a scheduled weekly audience because of illness in more than 16 months.

The Polish-born John Paul, who became pope in 1978 and is one of history’s longest-serving pontiffs, looms large over recent history. He is credited with playing a role in the fall of communism in Europe and has diligently promoted core conservative values in the Roman Catholic Church.

The world has watched the once-athletic and vigorous pope, who traversed the globe with visits to more than 130 countries, physically deteriorate to a point where he could not deliver his speeches and had trouble communicating. He appeared somewhat healthier last year, a change attributed to better medicines and a less taxing schedule.

Then the flu hit. At his last public appearance, on Sunday in his residence overlooking St. Peter’s Square, John Paul seemed unusually weak and spoke in a hoarse voice.

The pope was admitted before midnight to Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital where he had been treated for previous illnesses and after an assassination attempt in 1981.

“The flu, which the Holy Father was suffering for three days, this evening became complicated by an acute laryngeal tracheitis and larynx spasm crisis,” Navarro-Valls said in a statement Tuesday. “For this reason, urgent admission to Gemelli Polyclinic, which occurred at 10:50 p.m. today, was decided.”

A bitter cold snap hit Rome last month, and a particularly virulent strain of flu appears to be making the rounds. Government officials reported that about 1% of Italy’s population had fallen ill with the flu. Vatican officials would not say whether the pope had received a flu shot.

Navarro-Valls said he could not say when the pope would be back at work. “As always with influenza, it is a day-to-day question,” he told Vatican Radio.

If the pope were to die, a college of more than 100 cardinals, most of whom were appointed by John Paul, would convene to select his successor.