Pope may make appearance

2005-03-25 07:39

Vatican City - On Christianity's most solemn day, a frail Pope John Paul II may brush aside his health struggles to join virtually with pilgrims at Rome's Colosseum, for the annual Way of the Cross ceremony marking the crucifixion of Christ, Vatican sources said.

The 84-year-old pope, who has struggled to recover from a throat operation a month ago to help him breathe, could make a video-link appearance on screens around the ancient amphitheatre from his Vatican apartment, the sources said.

For the first time in his 26-year pontificate, the pope will remain at the Vatican for the ceremony, while the Vicar of his Rome diocese, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, will preside in his place.

In previous years, the pope presided over the ceremony from his throne atop the Palatine Hill, across from the ancient arena.

The ravages of recent illness, old age and Parkinson's disease have forced the pontiff to take a largely peripheral role in this year's ceremonies for Easter Holy Week, the most solemn of the Church calendar when Christians commemorate the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

John Paul II will not take part in a key ritual that has marked previous Good Fridays since his first as pope in 1979 - entering St Peter's basilica in the morning to hear the confessions of ordinary pilgrims.

Last year, in the Catholic rite of reconciliation, he listened to and forgave the sins of 11 ordinary people who one by one joined him behind a specially erected screen as he was unable to enter the basilica's cramped confessional.

At mass marking Christ's Last Supper on Thursday evening, John Paul II said in a message read out to pilgrims by Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo that he was with them "in mind and in heart".

The ailing pontiff has not spoken in public since March 13, when he was discharged from Rome's Gemelli hospital.

Though he has delegated all ceremonies this Easter to his cardinals, the Vatican said he intended to make his traditional Urbi et Orbi (to Rome and the world) blessing on Easter Sunday.

- SAPA