Vatican City - He presides over an organization with two millennia of history, but Pope John Paul II is like anyone who's been away from the office for a while: His e-mail is piling up.
The Vatican says it's logged more than 10,000 e-mails in English alone for the pope, who is recovering at a Rome hospital from throat surgery to ease his second breathing crisis in a month.
More than 6,000 e-mails in Spanish have streamed into the pope's inbox, along with thousands of others in various languages, the Vatican said.
"As far as the content, the common denominator is not only the good wishes but personal memories and episodes of life recounted by those who have been stirred by the words of the pope and his testimony of faith," Vatican Radio reported this week.
"The closeness expressed to the pope is coming from every part of the world," it said. "The flow of messages doesn't stop."
The Vatican won't say how much — if any — e-mail the 84-year-old pontiff actually reads or responds to, but John Paul seems comfortable with the medium.
In 2001, sitting in the Vatican's frescoed Clementine Hall, he used a laptop to tap out an apology for Roman Catholic missionary abuses against indigenous peoples of the South Pacific.
The pope on several occasions has relayed his thanks "for all those signs of affection that have reached me" since he was rushed by ambulance back to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic hospital on Feb. 24 for an operation to insert a breathing tube in his windpipe. The Vatican says it expects John Paul to be released from the hospital by Palm Sunday, March 20.
More time-honored expressions of affection and support such as letters, telegrams and poems also have poured in for the pope. This week, the Vatican released letters and drawings sent by Italian third-graders, who drew a smiling pope waving a cane and pictures of the pontiff in his hospital bed. Even prisoners have been writing to the pope.
"The pope sees some of the messages, but I don't know how many," hospital spokesman Nicola Cerbino said Tuesday. "All the messages that are received by the pope get an official response."
The flood of e-mails underscores how the pope and the Vatican have embraced technology and used it to advance the work of the church.
The Holy See often issues news or documents to journalists via e-mail, and its labyrinth of obscure offices and councils are online in half a dozen languages. Even the Sistine Chapel with its famed art collection offers a virtual reality tour.
John Paul has taken a cautious approach to e-mail and the Internet, speaking out against the proliferation of online pornography and hate speech and the industry's need to police itself and meet the "ethical and spiritual challenges" raised as communications technology evolves.
Though it can be a useful tool for the church's efforts to spread the Gospel, "its misuse can do untold harm, giving rise to misunderstanding, prejudice and even conflict," the pope said in a January message marking World Communications Day.
The pope himself has been the subject of unpleasant e-mail.
In 2003, a 23-year-old Bosnian man sent an e-mail from an Internet cafe to the organizers of the pontiff's landmark 100th foreign trip, a visit to Croatia, threatening to kill him "in the name of Allah." The man, who insisted it was just a joke, was sentenced to six months in prison.
One reason John Paul may be getting so much e-mail is that it's so easy to send it to him.
The Vatican has retooled its Web site to let the faithful click on an icon depicting the pope and the words, "Best Wishes for the Holy Father."
An e-mail composer then pops up with his address, john_paul_ii@vatican.va, in the send field.
Does the pope get spam? The Vatican won't say