Pope Improving but Easter Role in Doubt, Aide Says

The health of Pope John Paul II, who has not been seen in public for four days, continues to improve, the Vatican said Thursday. But the ailing pontiff might miss ceremonies leading up to Easter, the most important holiday on the Christian calendar.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls would not say when the pope would be released from the hospital, where a week ago he underwent an emergency operation to insert a breathing tube in his neck.

Navarro-Valls, speaking to reporters after issuing an update on the pope’s condition, said it was also unclear what role John Paul would be able to play in the hectic week of Masses and other services beginning Palm Sunday, March 20, and culminating in Easter the following Sunday. It is Christianity’s most solemn period, and also an especially taxing time for the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

“The pope must decide, once he has returned, the way he will participate in these ceremonies,” Navarro-Valls said. “But at the moment, nothing has been decided.”

The uncertainty left open the possibility that the 84-year-old John Paul might spend Easter in the hospital. An Easter week without the pope officiating would underscore how increasingly frail he has become. He is barely able to speak or walk, and each new affliction further limits his ability to evangelize.

John Paul was admitted to the Gemelli Polyclinic hospital Feb. 24 for the second time in less than a month, suffering from severe breathing difficulties. After his first hospitalization, he was released after nine days, and some now think that might have been an overly hasty discharge that contributed to his relapse.

“He would come back tomorrow if he could,” a senior church official said. “But this time he’s listening to the doctors.”

Eager to quell speculation that the pope can no longer carry out his duties, Vatican officials announced a series of tasks they said he had completed. He had named bishops for Brazil and Mexico, and sent a letter Thursday to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, one of the departments that govern the church, which is holding a plenary session. The pope signed the message using the Latin variation of his name: “IOANNES PAULUS II, from the Gemelli Polyclinic.”

“He daily follows the activity of the Holy See and the life of the church” with aides, Navarro-Valls said. “The health of the Holy Father John Paul II continues to improve and show progress.”

Access to the pope has been restricted to his closest associates and an occasional cardinal. His doctors have not been permitted to speak to the media, so a fuller picture of the pope’s condition has not been made available, and it has not been possible to verify the statements from Vatican officials.

German-born Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the conservative guardian of church dogma and a confidant of John Paul’s, said the pope had spoken to him in Italian and German during a visit this week. He said the pope was in “full command of his mental faculties” and “able to say essential things with his words.”

Cardinal Joachim Meisner said after a visit Wednesday that the pope’s voice appeared stronger than he expected.

“When he saw me, he said, ‘I am happy you are here,’ ” Meisner said.

Doctors had earlier ordered John Paul not to speak so as to allow his inflamed, constricted larynx to recover. Navarro-Valls said the pope was exercising to rehabilitate his breathing and speaking, was eating, and was sitting up in an armchair. The incision in his throat is healing, the spokesman said.