ROME - Pope John Paul II will give his traditional Angelus blessing from his hospital window in Rome this weekend even though doctors have yet to decide if the 84-year-old pontiff is well enough to go home.
"The Angelus will be like last Sunday. The pope will participate, giving his blessing," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said as he left the Gemelli hospital on Friday following his daily visit to the pope's 10th-floor suite.
"We will have 100 percent confirmation tomorrow," he said.
Navarro-Valls added that John Paul II's breathing and voice therapy, which he began last Monday following his tracheotomy last week, "are continuing well".
Doctors performed the throat surgery on February 24 after the pope was rushed to hospital for a second time in a month with severe breathing complications due to the flu and his long-standing Parkinson's disease.
Last Sunday, when for the first time in John Paul II's pontificate an aide performed the traditional weekly blessing in St Peter's Square, the pope unexpectedly appeared at his hospital window. He waved to a small crowd of well-wishers, made the sign of the cross, and momentarily touched his throat.
Navarro-Valls, the media's only source for information about the pope's medical condition as the Vatican has effectively silenced his medical team, said later even he had been surprised.
Rome's daily Il Messaggero said in its Friday edition that it was "very likely that the pope will say a few words" during the Sunday blessing.
John Paul II was meanwhile spending an eighth day at the Gemelli. Doctors who performed a throat surgery on him on February 24 have so far declined to give a date for his discharge.
Each stage of the pontiff's recovery is being closely watched for signs that he may yet be able to lead the Easter Holy Week ceremonies -- the most gruelling of the Catholic calendar, which commemmorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
In a message read out in his name by an aide, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, last Sunday, the pope asked pilgrims in St Peter's Square "above all, to continue to accompany me with your prayers".
In recent days, the Vatican has repeatedly suggested the pope is slowly regaining his strength. Navarro-Valls said Thursday that he "really wants to go home".
However, the spokesman was unwilling to speculate about when.
"I'll tell you that when the doctors say so, but there's still no precise date and I don't want to speculate on a probable date, because it could change -- either in a positive or negative way."
Israeli ambassador to the Holy See Oded Ben Hur delivered what he called a "message of peace" to the hospital Friday from Israel's Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar.
"This is not only a simple letter, it is a prayer, hoping and wishing that the pope gets better as soon as possible," Ben Hur told reporters after meeting Vatican officials, but not the pope himself, at the hospital.
"It is also a message of peace for the world, and wishing that other religions take example from the pope's leadership," he added.
John Paul II was the first pope to recognize the state of Israel, and the first to enter a synagogue.
03/04/2005 13:30 GMT