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Reassuring reports on the Pope’s health are coming out of the Vatican. The Pope is resting and medical tests are yielding satisfactory results. That’s the gist of the bulletins being released by the director of the Vatican’s Press Room Navarro-Valls, who from the Policlinico Gemelli in Rome (where John Paul II is receiving treatment) systematically updates the journalists from all over the world who are following the Holy Father’s state of health. On the night between 1st and 2nd February John Paul II was hospitalised with a diagnosis of “acute tracheitis of the larynx with episodes of laryngeal spasm”. Since then news of the Pope’s condition has spread round the world, arousing expressions of affection and prayers. We report just some of the many expressions of support promoted by the European Churches. SLOVAKIA. “The deep bond with the Pope is one of the main characteristics of Slovak faith said the spokesman of the Slovak episcopate, Marian Gavenda, in a statement to SIR . Over the last few hours we have been witnessing an ‘exchange’ between the traditional forms of faith, such as prayer, fasting and offering of our own burdens and sufferings, to ask for the Pope’s recovery through the modern forms of communication such as press, radio and television, which since yesterday have been periodically giving news updates on the state of health of the Holy Father. We have received various e-mails in which the faithful thank us for prompt information, thanks to which they can feel themselves united with the Pope in prayer”. “The tone of esteem and sympathy shown by the media should be emphasized Gavenda concluded because they are in large part commercial and of liberal persuasion, some of them downright anticlerical. Slovakia is experiencing a wave of spiritual solidarity”. BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA. “As soon as I heard news of the Pope’s health reports the bishop of Banja Luka, Monsignor Franjo Komarica I sent a circular to all priests in my diocese asking them to inform all the faithful in their parishes of our wish that they begin a joint action of prayer for the speedy recovery of the Holy Father. Apart from personal prayer and prayer within families, the faithful are invited to pray not only for the ordinary intentions but also for the Pope, inserting where possible the texts of the votive Mass “for the Pope” before the formula “for the sick”. The same appeal was made by the archbishop of Sarajevo, Cardinal Pulijc, and the bishop of Mostar, Monsignor Peric”. SWITZERLAND. The Swiss bishops who arrived in Rome on 1st February for an “ad limina” visit heard “with sorrow” of the Holy Father’s hospitalisation in the Policlinico Gemelli and wish him “a speedy recovery”. They invoked a particular prayer for the Pope during a Mass celebrated in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on 2 February, says a statement issued the Swiss Episcopal Conferences. The Swiss bishops had opened their “ad limina” visit to Rome on 1st February with a mass celebrated by the president of the Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Amédée Grab. The 12 bishops and auxiliary bishops of the Confederation, together with the abbots of St. Maurice and Einsiedeln, are all present in Rome. After the celebration of the Eucharist, the bishops paid a visit to various offices of the Roman Curia to “emphasise and reinforce” says the statement communion and collaboration with the Apostolic See”. ENGLAND AND WALES. Prayers were recited in Westminster Cathedral in London where a service “for the health and well-being” of John Paul II was celebrated on 2nd February, following his admission to the Policlinico Gemelli in Rome. According to a spokesperson of the English bishops, similar prayers were being recited in practically all churches in Great Britain, where there are some 4 million Catholics. POLAND. News of the Pope’s hospitalisation with respiratory problems naturally aroused particularly strong reactions in Wadowice, his hometown. According to the reports of some press agencies, a throng of people gathered in front of the parish church where John Paul II was baptized 86 years ago. The words of the parish priest, Father Jakub Gil, were reassuring: “We pray and are trustful. Many come to ask for information about the Pope. As far as we can, we try to reassure everyone”. ITALY. The diocese of Rome has expressed “affectionate solidarity with our own dearly beloved bishop”, John Paul II. In a statement released on 2 February, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome and president of the Italian bishops, declared: “the diocese expresses its affectionate solidarity to its own dearly beloved bishop, accompanied by fervent and choral prayer, that Your Holiness may rapidly overcome your present indisposition and as soon as possible resume in full your ministry as Pastor of Rome and of the world”. Cardinal Ruini gave assurances that “in all parishes, religious communities and monasteries, and in any other ecclesial structure, special prayers are from today being recited for the Holy Father, with which each individual and family in Rome is invited to unite, whether in churches or in their own homes”. GermanY. “The journey of John Paul II to Cologne for the 20th World Youth Day remains fixed on the agenda”, says a brief communiqué issued by the organizing office of WYD in Cologne, which is receiving numerous requests for information on the condition of John Paul II. “The staff of the WYD office says the communiqué are praying for the Pope. The journey of John Paul II to Cologne for the 20th WYD remains fixed on the agenda”. The same confirmation comes from Heiner Koch, general secretary of the 20th WYD 2005: “We pray for the Pope’s rapid recovery. The Pope will come to Cologne. The preparations continue”. Slovenia. The Slovene Episcopal Conference has appealed to the faithful to pray for the Holy Father. “The Church in Slovenia says the Rev. Andrej Saje, general secretary and spokesman of the Slovene bishops is following with close attention the news being transmitted by the Vatican press office on the health of the Pope. The Slovene bishops wish the Holy Father a speedy recovery and urge the faithful to accompany him with fervent prayer during the days of his convalescence in hospital. In the feast of the Presentation of Jesus to the Temple [on 2 February] he adds the religious and faithful gathered in the solemn celebrations officiated by the ordinaries of the three Slovene dioceses addressed particular prayers to the Lord to strengthen the Holy Father in this time of illness”. BELGIUM. “The announcement of the Pope’s hospitalisation has deeply touched us. On behalf of the bishops of Belgium, I wish to assure you of our prayers for his speedy recovery”, writes Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop of Malines-Bruxelles in a message to the Holy See’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. “We invite the faithful of our country to join with us in prayer. May the Mother of God, consoler of afflictions, in whom the Pontiff has always had faith, accompany him in his suffering”. BULGARIA. “We pray that he may soon return to the Vatican”: that’s the hope being expressed in Bulgaria where masses for the improvement of the pontiff’s health have been celebrated in all Catholic churches. “People are worried by the news being broadcast by the mass media and are asking priests for further information the president of the Bulgarian Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Hristo Projkov, told SIR -. We try to tranquillise the faithful and continue to follow the state of health of the Pope from the bulletins transmitted by the Italian Catholic media. We are very happy that the Holy Father is now better and pray that he may soon recover and continue his mission”. FrancE. “A fervent and trustful prayer in every French diocese”: that’s the appeal made by the president of the French Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard , who recalled the Pope’s long prayer in the grotto of Lourdes on 15 August 2004. Other church leaders immediately took up Ricard’s appeal. “We pray that John Paul II may experience this further trial in interior peace. May the Lord watch over him and over the whole of his Church”, writes Cardinal PHILIPPE BARBARIN, archbishop of Lyon, appealing to the faithful to pray for “the Pope’s speedy recovery”. A mass for this intention was also celebrated at the Catholic University in Lyon, with students and staff. Prayers for the Pope were also recited by the Parisians who participat ed in a mass in the cathedral of Notre-Dame on the invitation of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger on Thursday 3rd February. SPAIN. The world day of the Consecrated Life was celebrated in Spain with a special mention of the Pope’s health. The Spanish Episcopal Conference issued no official communiqué, but all the masses celebrated by Spanish bishops in recent days have included prayers for the Pope’s health. A prayer chain, called in Costa Rica by the president of the country’s Episcopal Conference, Francisco Ulloa, has also arrived in Spain via Internet and Catholic youth associations have joined with their contemporaries in the Central American country in prayers for the Pope.
