Pope misses Mass, but offers Palm Sunday blessing from residence

Published: 2005-03-21

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- From the studio window of his residence, Pope John Paul II silently blessed thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for Palm Sunday and the diocesan celebration of World Youth Day. For the first time in his 26-year pontificate, the pope did not preside over the Palm Sunday Mass, nor did he deliver the Angelus address and prayer at the end of the solemn ceremony March 20. Instead, the pope's Angelus address was read and the midday prayer recited from the square below by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, a top official in the Vatican Secretariat of State. The archbishop said the pope followed the ceremony that marks the beginning of Holy Week on television. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the pope's vicar for the Diocese of Rome, presided over the Palm Sunday Mass.

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