VATICAN CITY -Pope John Paul II's condition is improving, and he has not suffered any more breathing spasms, the Vatican said, but the 84-year-old pontiff might have to spend up to a week in the hospital to fully recover.
In a sign that the pope's health had stabilized, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican would not issue another medical bulletin until today. The Holy See has said the pope would spend a few more days at the Gemelli Polyclinic hospital.
The Holy Father's general and respiratory conditions show a positive evolution. The pope has rested well with no repeat of the breathing spasms that sent him to the hospital Tuesday, Navarro-Valls said. He rested well all night
and the laboratory tests that were made give a satisfactory result.
John Paul was running a slight fever, he said.
Navarro-Valls did not say exactly how long the pope would remain hospitalized, but he told reporters, In my personal experience when I've had the flu it lasts seven days or a week -take your pick.
Vatican officials said the pope was expected to deliver his weekly address Sunday from the hospital.
Hospital spokesman Nicola Cerbino said the pope was being attended by a team of three doctors.
The pope is recovering well
said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who, as secretary of state, is the Vatican's No. 2 leader.
He told private TV Canale 5 that the pope's breathing problems could have been handled at the Vatican, where the pope had been laid up since Sunday evening with the flu. But the Holy Father
as everybody
entrusts himself to the doctors
and the decision was made to hospitalize him, he said.
The Vatican said the pope had suffered spasms of the larynx, making it difficult for him to breathe, and he had an inflamed windpipe.
The clinic was calm overnight, though police stayed on alert. Before dawn, lights switched on in the clinic's 10th floor, where the pontiff is staying in a special papal suite.
Apprehension over the fate of the leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics and one of the globe's best-known figures triggered an outpouring of well-wishes.
Poles prayed for him in the church where he was baptized in Poland, while Mexicans gathered in churches to light candles. Franciscan friars in the crypt of St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, Italy, asked God to help the pope in his suffering, while Catholic high school students in Pensacola, Fla., attended Mass in their gymnasium.
If anything happens to him
God forbid
there would be a great loss to the world
said Bishop John H. Ricard, who heads the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese and celebrated the Mass. So we are going to spend a great deal more time in prayer.
Although age and chronic health problems have slowed the pontiff considerably from his whirlwind pace during the early years of his 26-year-old papacy, John Paul has kept a remarkably strenuous pace.
His average week is spent working on documents, making appointments, meeting world leaders and appearing before the public at least twice a week.
American Cardinal James Francis Stafford, who is based at the Vatican, said church officials were working with concern and a spirit of prayer during the pope's absence.
We don't know how things will turn out -the Holy Father is 84 years old
he said, quoted in La Repubblica newspaper. We don't know what trials God has prepared for him.
