Yorkshire Post Today
03 February 2005
Pope stays in hospital but there is no cause for alarm, says VaticanMaggie
Stratton
THE Pope was last night running a fever as he spent a second night in
hospital with flu and breathing difficulties.
The Vatican insisted there was “no cause for alarm” and said the ailing
pontiff was in a stable condition.
Officials said the 84-year-old Pope yesterday received visitors, celebrated
Mass and was able to appoint two new bishops despite being taken into
hospital on Tuesday night.
Catholics around the world continued to pray he makes a swift recovery, but
the Pope is expected to remain at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic for several more
days.
Tests yesterday showed his heart and respiration were normal, but he was
running a slight fever, his spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. He
insisted the Pope had never lost consciousness and had not needed a
tracheotomy to help him breathe.
“There is no cause for alarm,” Mr Navarro-Valls added.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Vatican’s health care office,
said keeping the Pope in hospital will afford “many means to stay ready for
any complications”.
His health problems are also likely to be made worse by the fact he has
Parkinson’s disease.
Cardinal Barragan said the Pope’s inability to hold his back up straight has
left his lungs and diaphragm in a crushed position.
The Vatican cancelled all the Pope’s engagements for this week on the advice
of doctors after he came down with flu on Sunday He missed his weekly
audience yesterday for the first time since September 2003, when he was
suffering from an intestinal ailment.
He was previously said to have been in good form and had been continuing to
receive foreign leaders.
The president of Armenia visited the Vatican last week and the president of
the European Parliament was due on Friday ~V as well as appear before
pilgrims and tourists twice a week. Austen Ivereigh, Press secretary
to the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, yesterday
said: “We are relieved to hear the Pope’s condition appears to have
stabilised, and we are continuing to pray for his swift recovery.”
During the regular morning Mass at Westminster Cathedral, London, the
headquarters of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, a prayer was said
“that in the midst of his sickness and suffering, he may be consoled and
strengthened by the knowledge of Christ’s abiding presence”.
03 February 2005