Vatican City -- Pope John Paul II, a week out of the hospital, sat out Palm Sunday Mass for the first time in his 26 years as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, appearing only briefly, silently and apparently in some frustration at his window before tens of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on Sunday.
Cheered by the crowd on a gorgeous first day of spring, the 84-year-old pope waved an olive branch on his third-story balcony, then put his hand in front of his face and pounded a glass lectern, before he was wheeled back inside his apartment and a curtain closed over the window. Unlike the case last Sunday, when he said a few sentences publicly a few hours before being released from the hospital, he did not speak.
Before his appearance, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, the pope's voice in this most recent bout of illness, told the crowd that the John Paul was following the ceremony in the square, just outside his window, on television. He read a greeting from the pope: "With great joy, I salute you."
The pope, hospitalized twice in February for the flu and a tracheotomy to relieve severe breathing problems, normally leads the ceremonies in the Holy Week before Easter Sunday, the day marking the Resurrection of Jesus. This year, however, his illness and deep trouble speaking because of the operation has forced him to delegate most of his duties to senior cardinals.
On this Palm Sunday, which marks the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the week before his Crucifixion and Resurrection, John Paul's stand-in was Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the vicar of Rome. In his homily, Cardinal Ruini spoke of how the suffering of Christ on the cross energized the faithful - "and shines with special clarity on the weary face of the Holy Father."
While Vatican officials have characterized his recovery in largely positive terms, the pope has looked weak and gaunt in his few recent public appearances, including a short videolink last week.
Still, officials have left open the possibility that he will take part in some way in the traditional Good Friday re-enactment, held at the Colosseum, of Christ's bearing the cross. Until these late stages of his fight with Parkinson's disease, the pope carried the cross.
But the only event for which he has committed himself is his annual Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter Sunday.
Vatican officials, as well as John Paul himself, are holding out hope that he will be able to attend celebrations in Cologne, Germany, in August, honoring youth. He inaugurated that annual event, as he noted Sunday in the message read by Archbishop Sandri, urging young people to attend this year.
"Twenty years ago, here in this square, I began the World Youth Day," his message said.
"Today I say to you: continue tirelessly on the path," he said. "Do not be afraid! The joy of the Lord, crucified and resurrected, is your strength, and Most Holy Mary is always at your side."