Pope to leave hospital tonight
The Pope will leave hospital tonight, the Vatican said, declaring the 84-year-old pontiff “cured” of the illness that landed him in a Rome clinic for 10 days and rekindled questions about his ability to carry on as head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul had recovered completely from the breathing crisis that led to his urgent admittance to Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic on February 1 and that his general condition was continuing to improve.
Navarro-Valls said a battery of tests including a CT scan – a three-dimensional X-ray – had “excluded other pathologies,” meaning it ruled out any new illnesses.
He said the Pope would return to his apartment in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. That would coincide with a traditional Lenten period of spiritual reflection for the pontiff with no public ceremonies.
It would enable John Paul to regain strength before Easter without having to cancel anything.
Police stepped up security at Gemelli in preparation for the Pope’s discharge, and officers took up positions on a main road running past the Vatican as well as at the gates to the Holy See.
Hundreds of Romans gathered behind barricades hoping for a glimpse of the car taking John Paul back to the Vatican. Authorities said the Pope might leave Gemelli as late as 7.30pm local time (6.30pm Irish time), but there were no indications that the timing had anything to do with his health.
Navarro-Valls said it was too soon to say what the Pope’s schedule will be like.
“When he gets back to the Vatican he will look over and decide with his doctors what his appointments will be,” he said. “He will take into account, or listen to, his personal physician.”
John Paul also planned to send a thank-you note to the doctors and nurses who attended him, the spokesman said.
The Pope, who also suffers from Parkinson’s disease and crippling hip and knee ailments, was admitted to hospital for emergency treatment of respiratory problems two days after coming down with flu.
John Paul’s ninth night in his private mini-ward on the 10th floor was uneventful, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Thursday.
Asked about the Pope’s ability to speak, Navarro-Valls said: “I heard him this morning,” but didn’t elaborate.
A remark earlier this week by the Vatican’s number two official about the possibility of a papal resignation set off a prickly debate among top cardinals and papal advisers.
No pope has resigned for centuries, and John Paul repeatedly has said he intends to carry out his mission until the end.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who as secretary of state is second only to John Paul in the Vatican’s hierarchy, said the hypothesis of a papal resignation should be left “up to the Pope’s conscience”.
Other leading cardinals have echoed that assessment.
But Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who as head of the Congregation of Bishops is one of the Pope’s top advisers, criticised such talk as “bad taste.”
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