Tears flow for silent pope

2005-03-27 13:05

Vatican City - Though he struggled with all his might, a frail Pope John Paul II failed to voice a traditional Easter Sunday blessing for the first time in his 26-year pontificate, in an appearance at his apartment window overlooking a rain-dampened St Peter's Square.

Straining to speak, the pope breathed into a microphone which was passed to him at his open window, but was unable to pronounce the blessing, eventually being forced to concede to his illness.

Many pilgrims among the thousands in the square for his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" were in tears as they watched an unfolding Vatican drama on Christianity's most important day.

"Oh No!" gasped Maria Romero of Peru, as the pope's aide took away the microphone. "The poor thing can't speak!" she said, as tears streamed down her face.

Men and women across the Vatican square wept as they watched in a hushed silence the pope gesture his blessing.

"I am worried. This means he doesn't have much time left," said Maria Carmela of Palermo, Sicily, wiping away tears.

A monk from Brazil said the pope's silence was "very eloquent".

"It speaks to all those who are suffering. His silence is one of hope," said brother Carlos Nogueira.

Easter Holy Week

The pope, who is recovering from a throat operation and breathes through a tracheotomy tube in his neck, has not participated in any of the Easter Holy Week ceremonies.

Many believed he would use the Easter Sunday "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) blessing to speak his first words in public for two weeks, but they heard only the pope's laboured breathing.

Vatican watchers said the pope, who remained seated at his window for 15 minutes as his secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, read out his Easter greeting, seemed overcome by emotion, as one point making a gesture as if to wipe tears from his eyes.

The 84-year-old pope, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, appeared to be in better form than at any of his recent public appearances, although at times seemed agitated by his inability to speak.

In the Easter message he was too ill to read himself, John Paul II called for peace in the Middle East and Africa and "generous solidarity" for the multitudes dying from poverty and hunger.

The pope called for peace for a world "drenched in the blood of so many innocent victims, peace for the countries of the Middle East and Africa, where so much blood continues to be shed, peace for all of humanity threatened by fratricidal wars."

In a sombre message which contrasted with the normal vibrant clarion call to hope in keeping with Christianity's most joyful celebration, the pope called on Jesus "crucified and risen, stay with us!"

"Stay with us, faithful friend and sure support for humanity on its journey through history," said the message, which inadvertently could have been the most eloquent summing up of the sentiments of those watching and fretting for their frail leader.

- AFP