Rome hospital where he recovers from breathing problems and the flu, the Vatican said Monday, February 7.
In a statement monitored by BosNewsLife, the Vatican explained that the 84-year old pontiff
has been advised to prolong his hospitalization "for obvious precautionary motives". But "the general condition of the Holy Father is improving and he no longer has a fever, he’s eating regularly and he spent a few hours sitting in an armchair," said papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls in a statement published on the Vatican Web site.
"As a matter of precaution, it’s been recommended that he remain in the hospital for a few more days," he added. Navarro Valls told reporters earlier that the Pope was eating normally, sitting up at a chair and did not have a fever, the Reuters news agency reported.
CELEBRATING MASS
"The Pope is celebrating Mass every day in his room, for the medical staff treating him," the spokesman was quoted as saying. "I can also say that the Pope is occasionally looking at newspapers, in order, he says, ‘to see how my illness is going’".
The Vatican has tried to play down concerns about his health, after Pope John Paul made a brief appearance from his hospital window on Sunday, February 6, sounding hoarse and frail, as he blessed the onlookers.
Last week in his homeland Poland, former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa urged the world’s over one billion Catholics not to over-dramatize the pontiff’s hospitalization, but to "pray for our health and his."
"The pope is made of solid stock," Walesa, who has met the pope on several occasions, told Polish and Western media.
PRAYING FOR HEALTH
"Let’s not turn the pope’s hospitalization into a tragedy. Let us pray for our health and, above all, the pope’s, and everything will work out for the best," he said. "Many had said the Pope was in bad shape and they are already with St Peter, while the Holy Father continues to serve people and the world."
Vatican officials said the pope is staying in a series of rooms permanently reserved for him that occupy the entire 10th floor of Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital, where he was rushed on February 1 for breathing difficulties brought on by "larynx spasms."
Doctors have reportedly described the area as "The Second Vatican" as the pope was treated
there eight times for a variety of health problems. Polish-born Karol Josef Wojtyla, who has been pontiff for over 26 years, is the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI more than 400 years ago.
The next update on the Pope’s health would come Thursday, February 10, spokesman Navarro-Valls said.
