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Pope “quite well” after peaceful night in hospital

-2/02/05

Pope John Paul is “quite well” and spent a peaceful night in hospital, the Ansa news agency has said, quoting an unnamed Vatican source.

The 84-year-old Pope was rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties on Tuesday night after a bout of influenza suddenly worsened. Doctors are due to release a medical bulletin on the Pope’s health at around 9:00 a.m. (8:00 a.m. British time).

A member of the papal household, American Archbishop James Harvey said the Pope had congestion and a slight fever during the day.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham told ICN: “The Holy Father is in my prayers at this time as he will be in the prayers of every Catholic and person of good will in the world.

“I am sure that he is receiving the best possible medical care. I hope that he will recover his strength and soon be able to take up his duties again soon. But these things are all in the hands of God.”

Meanwhile, prayers are being said today across Britain and throughout the world for the Pope.

The heartfelt wishes reflect the popularity of the spiritual leader of millions of Catholics around the world.

His ability to mesmerise a crowd of hundreds of thousands are legendary, and his visits to Britain and Ireland still vivid in the memories of those who attended the huge gatherings.

One and a quarter million people congregated in Dublinís Phoenix Park to see him celebrate Mass in 1979 when he became the first Pope to set foot on Irish soil.

Three years later, during the Falklands War with Argentina, he toured England, Scotland and Wales. During the six days of the visit he travelled from one end of the country to the other, taking part in miles of motor cavalcades and a succession of huge public services.

Born May 18th, 1920, near Krakow, Poland, in 1978 Karol Jozef Wojtyla became the first non-Italian to become Pope for 450 years.

As a sports-mad youngster he had been an avid football goalkeeper and keen skier, as well as a noted lover of the arts who wrote a series of poems under a pseudonym and toured the country performing Shakespeare and Polish drama.

Wojtyla was ordained as a priest in 1946 after he secretly studied theology during the Nazi occupation.

He was appointed as a bishop in 1958, aged 38, and six years later was made Archbishop of Cracow. He became a cardinal two years later.

Although e did not expect to be elected to the papacy, following the death of Pope John Paul I in 1978, he showed an early determination to establish himself as a figurehead for the Catholic community after returning to his Communist-run homeland in 1979.