Pope - A sign of strength

Three-year-old Giulio De Stefanis could be forgiven for being disappointed.

He wanted to see Pope John Paul but instead was blessed by an archbishop, dressed not in white but in black and crimson.

"That's not the Pope, mummy. Where's the Pope?" he asked.

The answer to his question had spread a sad silence over the crowd in St Peter's Square yesterday. The Pope was in hospital 6.4 kilometres away and for the first time in his 26-year reign would not give his weekly blessing.

Every Sunday, pilgrims and tourists gather at St Peter's and gaze up at the Pope's apartment window to receive his blessing.

This week, they could only gaze at television screens around the square which showed an old photograph of a robust and younger looking John Paul dressed in red and holding a staff.

"It's not the same without him," said Giorgio Muti, who has sold rosaries and keychains in the oval piazza in front of St Peter's Basilica for the past 50 years.

"I've seen popes come and go. It's sad to say it, but I suppose there'll be another change soon," said the 70-year-old Muti, who is now on his fifth pope.

But John Paul, who has battled through an assassination attempt, Parkinson's Disease and athritis to keep leading his flock, was determined to show he was still there.

He appeared briefly at his hospital window to wave at the crowd below and bless them. The screens at St Peter's had been turned off by the time he appeared but as the news spread, pilgrims cried "Evviva! Long Live the Pope!".

Miles away in the hospital car park, 10 floors below the Pope's suite, fellow patients shivered in their dressing gowns, nuns prayed and a group of pilgrims from Spain sang.

All were hoping against hope that he would appear.

After the Angelus was over at the Vatican, the metal blinds over his window rattled up slowly and the Pontiff, dressed in traditional white robes, appeared behind the glass.

He managed only a weak wave and a sign of the cross but that was more than enough for many.

"I saw his hand raised. I'm telling you, I had faith. I'd been praying he'd come," said Laura Tosti, tears in her eyes.

Back at the Vatican, a group of wheelchair-bound pilgrims said the Pope's fortitude gave them strength to carry on.

"Suffering is an integral part of being human but nobody wants to talk about it. Now the Pope is living through it with us and that's the best encouragement," said Raffaella, 55.

The sign of strength was also vital for the Church, rocked by child abuse scandals and dwindling membership in the West.

"We need to support him and to have him show he feels the Church is worth fighting for. The Church needs all the strength it can get right now," said Alan Holmes, a tourist from Florida.