Pope misses Palm Sunday services for first time

For the first time in Pope John Paul's papacy, Holy Week services leading up to Easter began without the Pontiff yesterday and the faithful heard a cardinal compare the Pope's suffering to that of Christ.

At the end of the Palm Sunday ceremony, the Pope, who left hospital a week ago, appeared at his window overlooking St Peter's Square for less than two minutes.

Looking gaunt and sitting, he waved an olive branch in the sign of the cross but did not speak.

The man once known as "The Great Communicator" remained silent. Looking uncomfortable, he banged a glass lectern with his fist in what appeared to be a sign of frustration and was wheeled away.

The brief, poignant appearance brought tears to the eyes of some people in the crowd of tens of thousands below.

"I almost had a heart attack. Seeing him at the window so overwhelming," said Giuseppe Velas, from Sardinia. "I hope he will guide the Church for a long time."

During the 2-1/2-hour ceremony before his appearance, the crowd of faithful waved palm and olive branches as symbols of peace as cardinals and bishops walked in procession.

But the absence of the 84-year-old Pope, now in the 27th year of his papacy, hung heavy in the air.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's vicar for the Rome diocese, presided at the Mass on behalf of the Pope, who is recovering from a tracheotomy operation on his throat.

During the service, the Pope's window was kept open - curtains wafting in the warm breeze and a palm branch on the windowsill - as a sign of his participation in the event which recalls Christ's entry into Jerusalem five days before his crucifixion.

The Vatican said he watched it on television. In his sermon, Cardinal Ruini said the cross of Christ always offered new symbolism to the faithful and this year that symbol in suffering was the Pope himself.

"The cross of Christ does not depress or weaken. On the contrary, it spouts new energy, which is reflected in the saints that have made the history of the Church fruitful, and which today is reflected with particular clarity in the fatigue on the face of the Holy Father," Cardinal Ruini said.

Cardinal Ruini said considering suffering "useless and harmful" was wrong. "This is the error which blocks us understanding not only the significance of suffering but even the meaning of life," he said.

During the Mass, celebrated under clear skies, a prayer was said for the health of the Pope, who left Rome's Gemelli hospital a week ago after two stints there totalling 28 days.

"We pray for our beloved father, Pope John Paul II, may the Holy Spirit enlighten and sustain him so that his witness of fidelity to Christ may be an example to all the young people of the world..." the prayer, read in Portuguese, said.

The Pope, who has a tube in his throat to help him breathe, has delegated nearly all Holy Week services to senior cardinals.

Holy Week, which ends on Easter Sunday, is the busiest and most important period in the Church's liturgical calendar.