Vatican City - The dramatic failure of Pope John Paul II to speak during his Easter blessing left the faithful and Vatican experts worried for his health, but also for that of the Roman Catholic Church.
"Yesterday more than ever, it became obvious that a Church that touches a billion people across the world cannot rest on the shoulders of a single man," said Vatican observer Giancarlo Zizola.
"We are watching a personal tragedy," Zizola said, but also a theological tragedy because the pope's entourage does not seem to understand that he is a human being. "They are not capable of resignation."
More importantly, "it is also an institutional tragedy, because they do not realize that the Church is suffering through lack of transparency," Zizola told AFP.
The contrast with past Easters, when the pope would bless the crowd in some 60 languages, was striking.
On Sunday, more than 70,000 people, many in tears, stood in silence as the 84-year-old pope clearly in pain uttered a few gasping sounds but failed to speak out his Easter blessing.
Millions more watched the event broadcast live by more than 100 televisions across the world.
Sunday's appearance left Nicola Detrino pessimistic about the pope's chances of recovery. "It is just a matter of time," said the pensioner from the southern Italian city of Foggia.
Illness also kept the pope in his chambers on Monday, when a few hundred pilgrims waited in vain for him to appear at his window overlooking St Peter's square at midday.
Until last year, the pope would appear at his window on Easter Monday to bless the crowd and mark the end to Easter celebrations, the most solemn in the Christian calendar.
The pope, who is recovering from a throat operation and suffers from Parkinson's disease, has not spoken in public since his release from hospital on March 13.
"When the pope can no longer speak it is a problem for him to communicate with his flock," said Antonio David, an Italian who attended Sunday's mass on St Peter's square.
Ana Chamarro of Spain said she was pained for the pope, but also worried that his appearances weakened her Church.
"If the pope continues to appear so weak, we worry for our Church. The Catholic Church is going to have to take a decision," she said Monday.
Italy's Rai 3 television reported Monday that some Italian cardinals were urging the pope and his close circle of aides to "adopt a more sober attitude toward his image."
Top Vatican cardinals say that John Paul II has spoken in private and insist that he is completely lucid and can govern the Church.
But Zizola said the cardinals were keeping this line "to cover the fact that it is the Vatican cardinals that are governing and the pope is reduced to a mere image."
Rai 3 also quoted inside sources as saying that although lucid, the pope "cannot govern the Church."
Newspapers have reported a "pact" between the Vatican's four most senior cardinals -- Angelo Sodano, Joseph Ratzinger, Giovanni Battista Re and Camillo Ruini -- to maintain the status-quo in the hierarchy at the Holy See as long as the uncertainty surrounding pope's condition continues.
But the cardinals can "administer, not create. We can still feel the absence of the hand of Wojtyla," said Zizola, referring to the pope by his Polish name. "The question is whether this is sustainable ... without damaging the Church's mission," he added.