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================================================== ZENIT News Agency, The World Seen from Rome ================================================== Pope Imparts Blessing From Hospital Window "I Continue to Serve the Church," He Says VATICAN CITY, FEB. 6, 2005 (Zenit.org).- After five days of hospitalization, John Paul II addressed the world via television to impart his apostolic blessing from the window of the Gemelli Polyclinic. "Also here in hospital, in the midst of the other patients, to whom I address my affectionate greetings, I continue to serve the Church and the whole of humanity," said the Pope in the message read in his name today by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, substitute of the Vatican Secretariat of State. The cameras focused on the Holy Father, seated at a window on the 10th floor of the hospital, during the traditional Sunday greeting of the Pope to pilgrims. Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro Valls said Saturday that the Holy Father did not want to miss this occasion. After praying the Angelus, the Pope sang the antiphon in Latin with a hoarse and tired voice and then imparted the apostolic blessing, eliciting prolonged applause among the hundreds of people who had gathered in the hospital's courtyard. The same applause resounded in St. Peter's Square, where thousands of pilgrims had gathered to pray the Angelus. They watched the Pope via four large television screens. Numerous teams of television cameramen have set up operations in Gemelli's parking lot since the Pope was hospitalized last Tuesday night, including a team from the pan-Arabic Al-Jazeera channel. Al-Jazeera broadcast the Angelus address live. Vatican statements have confirmed the Holy Father's steady progress. The Holy See will publish a further statement on his state of health on Monday. The brief address the Pope prepared for the occasion, read by Archbishop Sandri, focused on respect for life, what John Paul II considers "the first among the great challenges of humanity today." "One must have confidence in life!" exhorted the Holy Father. "Confidence in life is demanded silently by children who are yet unborn. Confidence is also asked by so many children who, remaining without a family for different reasons, need a home that will receive them through adoption or temporary custody." The Pope began his message by thanking "from his heart" all those looking after him in hospital as well as all those who "in every part of the world are close to me." ZE05020604 =================================================== ZENIT is an International News Agency. To receive ZENIT News Services by e-mail, FREE Subscription at: http://www.zenit.org/english/subscribe.html For reprint permission, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit our web page at http://www.zenit.org/ SEND US YOUR NEWS: Please send press releases, statements and other information to our international news desk at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright (c) - Innovative Media, Inc. =================================================== You can send this news to a friend at the following link: http://www.zenit.org/english/send_friend/[EMAIL PROTECTED]&sid=65955 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Would you Help a Child in need? It is easier than you think. Click Here to meet a Child you can help. http://us.click.yahoo.com/O2aXmA/I_qJAA/i1hLAA/wpWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> "[M]y ministry is that of servus servorum Dei." --Pope John Paul II (Ut Unum Sint, no. 88) "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." --Matthew 16:18 Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pope-John-Paul-II/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
