Knee pains apparent during pope's appearance

VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II, after skipping his weekly general audience because of what the Vatican described as persistent knee pain, greeted well-wishers from his studio window Wednesday and thanked them for praying for a speedy return to health.

John Paul winced as he gingerly stepped back from the window overlooking St. Peter's Square, appearing to be in pain when he moved.

The Vatican said Tuesday that because of pain in his right knee, the pope would not hold his regular Wednesday audience with the public in a Vatican auditorium, but would bless the faithful from his window. The pain was also cited in canceling parish visits on four straight Sundays.

"Thanks for the visit and thanks for the prayers you said for my speedy recovery," John Paul said in the appearance, which lasted a few minutes. His words were sometimes slurred and difficult to understand.

He sang the first words of the prayer, "Our Father," but let others sing the rest of it.

In addition to difficulty getting around since hip surgery following a 1994 fall, John Paul also is afflicted with the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder, including often unclear speech.

During the brief appearance, his left hand shook as he tried to steady it by leaning it on the windowsill. The hand tremor is another Parkinson's symptom.

The pope turns 82 in May. Athletic in his youth, he continued to hike and ski after becoming pontiff in 1978, but his papacy has been marked by health problems. In 1981 he was shot in an assassination attempt in the square, and in 1992 had surgery for the removal of a bowel tumor.

People who came to see the pope Wednesday expressed concern about the pope's well-being

"It's as if my grandfather were ill," said Ivan D'Angelo, a university student from the southern island of Capri.