Pope's Health Stabilizing

Pope John Paul II's condition is improving and he has not suffered any more breathing spasms, the Vatican said Thursday, adding that the 84-year-old pontiff spent a peaceful night in the hospital where he was rushed earlier this week with problems brought on by the flu.

In a further sign that the pope's health had stabilized, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican would not issue another medical bulletin until Friday. The Holy See has said the pope would spend a few more days at the Gemelli Polyclinic hospital.

"The Holy Father's general and respiratory conditions show a positive evolution," Thursday's update said.

"The pope has rested well" with no repeat of the breathing spasms that sent him to the hospital Tuesday, Navarro-Valls said. "He rested well all night, and the laboratory tests that were made give a satisfactory result."

John Paul was running a slight fever, he said.

CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey reports an expert who treated the pope said the pontiff has two major things in his favor: a strong heart and a stronger will to carry on until the end.

Navarro-Valls did not say exactly how long the pope would remain hospitalized, but he told reporters: "In my personal experience, when I've had the flu, it lasts seven days or a week — take your pick."

Hospital spokesman Nicola Cerbino said the pope was being attended by a team of three doctors — his personal physician, the clinic's emergency department director and an ear, nose and throat specialist.

The pope is "recovering well," said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who, as secretary of state, is the Vatican's No. 2.

He told private TV Canale 5 that the pope's breathing problems could have been handled at the Vatican, where the pope had been laid up since Sunday evening with the flu. "But the Holy Father, as everybody, entrusts himself to the doctors," and the decision was made to hospitalize him, he said.

The Vatican said the pope had suffered spasms of the larynx, making it difficult for him to breathe, and had an inflamed windpipe.

The clinic was calm overnight, though police stayed on alert. Before dawn, lights switched on in the clinic's 10th floor, where the pontiff is staying in a special papal suite.

Apprehension over the fate of the leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics and one of the globe's best-known figures triggered an outpouring of well-wishes.

Poles prayed for him in the church where he was baptized in Poland, while Mexicans gathered in churches to light candles. Franciscan friars in the crypt of St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, Italy, asked God to help the pope in his suffering, while Catholic high school students in Pensacola, Fla., attended Mass in their gymnasium.

"If anything happens to him, God forbid, there would be a great loss to the world," said Bishop John H. Ricard, who heads the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese and celebrated the Mass. "So we are going to spend a great deal more time in prayer."

While anyone with the flu can develop respiratory complications, the elderly are especially vulnerable. Doctors also must guard against life-threatening complications, like pneumonia.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Vatican's health care office, told Associated Press Television News that the pope's stooped posture keeps his lungs and diaphragm in a crushed position, a chronic obstacle to proper breathing.

Keeping the pope hospitalized will afford "many means to stay ready for any complications," he said.

John Paul, battling Parkinson's disease as well as hip and knee ailments, has been in weak health for many years. But a leading Italian cardiologist, Attilio Maseri, who has treated the pontiff during previous hospitalizations, said the pontiff has two enviable factors on his side.

"He has exceptional cardiovascular function, guided by exceptional willpower," Maseri, now based in Milan's San Raffaele hospital, said on state TV early Thursday.

"If he overcomes the respiratory problems he's suffering, he'll certainly be able to go back doing what he was doing before."

The hospital said Thursday that the daily Mass conducted in its chapel would be dedicated to prayers for the pope.

"There are patients who stop you and ask you how the pope is, but they are mainly curious about the cameras," said Dr. Francesco Pierconti, a pathologist.

Although age and chronic health problems have slowed the pontiff considerably from his whirlwind pace during the early years of his 26-year-old papacy, John Paul has kept a remarkably strenuous pace.

His average week is spent working on documents, making appointments, meeting world leaders and appearing before the public at least twice a week.

American Cardinal James Francis Stafford, who is based at the Vatican, said church officials were working with concern and a spirit of prayer during the pope's absence.

"We don't know how things will turn out — the Holy Father is 84 years old," he said, quoted in La Repubblica newspaper. "We don't know what trials God has prepared for him."