Pope to Miss Palm Sunday Mass

From Lexington Herald-Leader | 03/19/2005 | Pope to miss Palm Sunday Mass for the first time:



"In a highly personal message to priests, Pope John Paul II said yesterday he was uniting his sufferings with those of Christ as he prepares for Holy Week services and the first Palm Sunday Mass he will be forced to skip in his 26-year papacy.



John Paul's reflections were written during his 21/2-week hospitalization at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic, where he was taken for the second time in a month because of breathing problems.



He was discharged Sunday and is convalescing at his apartment with a view of St. Peter's Square. On the advice of his doctors, John Paul has only one Holy Week commitment, an Easter Sunday blessing."