NEWS STORY: Update: Pope Hospitalized for Flu as Vatican Says No Cause for Alarm

c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II was taken to a Rome hospital late Tuesday (Feb. 1) after battling the flu for two days. Vatican officials said there was no cause for alarm. The ailing pope, 84, was taken to Gemelli Hospital after suffering a “breathing crisis,” the Associated Press […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II was taken to a Rome hospital late Tuesday (Feb. 1) after battling the flu for two days. Vatican officials said there was no cause for alarm. The ailing pope, 84, was taken to Gemelli Hospital after suffering a “breathing crisis,” the Associated Press reported. An American archbishop on the pope’s staff, James Harvey, said the pope had a fever and congestion. The hospital was the same facility where John Paul was taken in 1981 after a near-fatal assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square. John Paul’s health has declined dramatically in recent years, with Parkinson’s disease slurring his speech and hip and knee ailments confining him to movable chairs. Earlier Tuesday, Vatican aides had scaled back his schedule for the next several days but downplayed serious concern over his condition. “The evolution of the influenza syndrome that struck the Holy Father continues as expected,” said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. “As a consequence, appointments scheduled for the coming days have been postponed. In particular, the general audience of tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 2, will not take place,” the spokesman said. Navarro-Valls, who has a medical degree, issued the brief statement in writing and read it word-for-word on Vatican television without elaborating. The Rev. Ciro Benedittini, assistant spokesman, said it was not the Vatican’s custom to give details of the pope’s medical condition. It is unusual but not unheard of for John Paul to miss presiding over his weekly general audience because of illness. The last time was Sept. 24, 2003, when he came down with a gastrointestinal upset just two weeks before celebrations of the 25th anniversary of his election to the papacy. In recent years, the pope also canceled audiences on March 13, 1996, because of an intestinal fever; on Feb. 5, 1997, because of influenza; and on March 6, 2002, because of severe pain caused by arthritis in his right knee. Thousands of pilgrims attend the pope’s general audience, at which he delivers a brief teaching on a theological subject and offers greetings in a number of languages. Lately he has talked about the psalms said at Vespers services. The weather in Rome has been unusually cold and windy, with temperatures near freezing, for more than a week. Health authorities reported Monday that one out of every 100 Italians is bedridden with influenza at present. John Paul was hoarse and had trouble speaking clearly when he appeared at his open study window Sunday to lead the Angelus prayer and mark the end of the Catholic Church’s Month of Peace. His stay in the cold air was prolonged by the repeated refusal of a white dove of peace to take flight. The pope’s canceled appointments included audiences on Tuesday with Swiss bishops and members of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education and a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the Day of Consecrated Life. Other appointments in the coming days include a scheduled meeting on Friday (Feb. 4) with Josep Borrell Fontelles, the Spanish president of the European Parliament, and the Ash Wednesday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Feb. 9. Although he was called “God’s athlete” because of his vigor when he was elected pope in 1978 at the age of 58, John Paul’s strength also has been undermined by bullet wounds he suffered in his intestines in the attempt on his life on May 13, 1981, surgery for a pre-cancerous tumor of the colon in 1992, a dislocated shoulder in 1993 and a broken thigh bone in 1994. He has shown symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder, for some 17 years. KRE/PH END POLK

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