Vatican denies Pope recording

2005-02-06 20:16

Vatican City - The Vatican denied on Sunday that Pope John Paul II had help from a pre-recorded tape to mask his difficulty in reciting his weekly Angelus blessing from his hospital window.

"The holy father's words used during this morning's blessing were the same heard during the live broadcast," of the brief blessing, Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls told the ANSA news agency.

"The suggestion that such a pre-recorded tape of his words were broadcast at the same time is nonsense," he added.

In an exercise designed to show the 84-year-old pope was recovering from the severe breathing difficulties and throat infection that caused him to be hospitalised last week, the pontiff seemed to choke on the first few words of his blessing before recovering.

Vatican watchers and Italian media said he had probably received the assistance of a pre-recorded tape played by Vatican audio technicians when it became clear he had not recovered sufficiently well to be able to speak.

TV station Sky Italia said in a report the pope's brief blessing was "probably recorded".

Journalists suspicions were raised when the pope's inaudible words at the beginning of the blessing were quickly followed by silence, clicks, and then a much clearer sounding - though still very hoarse - John Paul II completing the blessing.

Meanwhile, the pope's mouth was blocked to the view of television cameras trained on the window because aides were holding up a sheet of paper on which he appeared to be following the full Angelus prayer, read out as arranged by the Vatican deputy secretary of state.

Earlier, as technicians made the usual sound tests ahead of Sunday's ceremony, Vatican correspondents were clearly able to hear a tape of the pope performing the blessing on loudspeakers in the Vatican press room.

- AFP