Pope appears at window, fulfills hopes of crowd waiting below

Published: 2005-03-09

ROME (CNS) -- An international group of rabbis, an Italian school group and a newlywed couple from New Mexico all had their hopes fulfilled when Pope John Paul II, wearing purple Mass vestments, came to his hospital window. Although the pope was not scheduled to greet people March 9 at Rome's Gemelli hospital, the insistent crowd gathered under his window was rewarded with a wave and a blessing. The groups originally had planned to participate in the pope's weekly general audience at the Vatican, but the audiences were suspended when Pope John Paul was taken to the hospital Feb. 24 and underwent a tracheotomy to help him breathe. Paola Balducci said the 71 children she brought from a Catholic school in Legnano, in northern Italy, had planned a four-day trip to Rome to see the sights, "but the goal was to see the pope."

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