Pope hospitalized with breathing problems

ROME (AP) -- Pope John Paul II was rushed to the hospital Tuesday night with breathing difficulties and an inflamed throat while battling the flu during an icy spell that has swept Italy, the Vatican said.

Anxiety has been running high over the 84-year-old pope's Parkinson's disease and other ailments, but Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told The Associated Press that the decision to hospitalize him was "mainly a precaution."

He noted that the pope was not in intensive care but in the same 10th floor suite of rooms where he has been during several previous stays at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic, about 2 1/2 miles from the Vatican.

The reaction to the pontiff's condition was virtually immediate in Mexico as dozens of Catholics attended a special Mass in the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, where Pope John Paul II canonized the church's first Indian saint during one of his five trips to the country.

Once again, please continue in prayer for our Holy Father.

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