VATICAN CITY -Pope John Paul II marked Ash Wednesday with a Mass for doctors in his Rome hospital room as he recovered from the flu and breathing troubles, missing public prayers ushering in the sacred Lenten season at the Vatican for the first time in his 26-year papacy.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the pope's vicar for Rome, visited the 84-year-old pontiff and said he found him very well more than a week after he was hospitalized.
I would like to give everyone a word of serenity and complete faith (in the pope)
Ruini said.
John Paul received ashes in his room at Gemelli Polyclinic, and he invited his personal physician, Dr. Renato Buzzonetti, and the other doctors caring for him to the ceremony, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement.
The pope is not expected to be discharged before today, when the Holy See issues its next bulletin on his health.
Though the Vatican says the pope's health continues to improve since he was rushed to the hospital Feb. 1, doctors have persuaded him to prolong his stay to be on the safe side. His eighth night in the hospital passed calmly, the ANSA news agency said early yesterday.
In services later at St. Peter's Basilica, American Cardinal James Stafford presided in the name of John Paul.
Stafford read his own homily in Italian, conveying no message from the pope to the Vatican's resident cardinals, archbishops, bishops and others assembled for a ceremony originally scheduled as a papal event. Several thousand faithful attended the prayer service, which involved the sprinkling of ashes on prelates and laymen.
In addressing you brothers and sisters I feel the joy and the honor of leading this solemn ceremony in the name of the Holy Father
said Stafford, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal that deals with excommunications and other issues.
We feel his spiritual presence among us and we remember him with affection while asking the Lord to grant him the graces necessary for his charisma as primate to unite the brothers in the faith.
An unidentified layman offered a prayer asking God to grant health and comfort to our beloved Pope John Paul II so that he may continue his pastoral ministry for the good of the church and all humanity.
John Paul had not missed public prayers on Ash Wednesday since he became pope in 1978.
The holiday traditionally kicks off a few weeks of spiritual reflection for the pope ahead of the taxing Holy Week services, which culminate with Easter on March 27.
With the pope in such frail health, it remained unclear whether he would be able to preside over the traditional March 25 Good Friday prayer service.
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