Pope released from hospital

VATICAN CITY – Nine days after critical breathing trouble landed him in the hospital, Pope John Paul II emerged from the medical complex Thursday, boarded his glass-encased “popemobile” and rode through the streets of Rome to his home in the Vatican.

From his vehicle, John Paul waved haltingly at crowds outside the hospital, including patients in their pajamas, and at people awaiting him in St. Peter’s Square.

The surprise decision to use the specially fitted car for the three-mile journey, instead of the ambulance that rushed him to the hospital in the dead of night on Feb. 1, was seen as an attempt to reassure a public anxious over the 84-year-old pontiff’s latest health scare. His illness fanned uncertainty over the future of the church and renewed the debate over whether John Paul, the third-longest serving pope, should step down.

The swelling in his throat and larynx that “motivated the urgent hospitalization of the Holy Father has been cured,” papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Thursday ahead of the pope’s release from hospital.

Navarro-Valls, reading from a statement and answering few questions, said the pontiff’s condition continued to improve. He said diagnostic tests, including a CAT scan, had ruled out “other pathologies.” But he would not say whether the pope’s voice was strong enough for him to read prayers aloud on Sunday.

The pope is expected to drop out of sight after Sunday to enter a previously planned weeklong meditation tied to the Christian penitential season of Lent. That will give him a chance to rest up before Easter, outside the scrutiny of the media press and public.

The pope was rushed to Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital on the northern outskirts of the city after a bad bout of the flu inflamed his windpipe and brought on the breathing difficulties. He also suffers from Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological affliction, and from a crippling form of arthritis.

Thursday’s ride offered the first glimpse the public has had of the pope since he appeared at his hospital window Sunday to deliver a short blessing. In that appearance, another priest stood at his side and read a message proclaiming his determination to persevere as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Sunday’s appearance, however, became entangled in the kind of intrigue that surrounds many matters of the papacy, which reflects uncertainty over the pope’s health and is fed by the secrecy that senior Vatican officials insist on maintaining. After the pope gave his blessing from his hospital window, Italian journalists became convinced that he was too weak to speak and that officials instead had dubbed in an old recording of his voice. The Vatican denied it.

The pope’s trip home to the Vatican – with his transport leading a convoy of sleek black cars accompanied by police on motorcycles, their sirens wailing and lights flashing – was broadcast live on Italian TV.