from Zenit news

A Pope Appears -- and Jaws Drop
By Elizabeth Lev
ROME, MARCH 3, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Rome has always inspired awe and wonder. From the Colosseum to St. Peter's to, yes, even the Victor Emmanuel monument (disparagingly called "the wedding cake"), the city has always taught world-weary visitors how to gasp in amazement again. John Paul II has certainly taken on this facet of the Eternal City in his quarter-century here. And he demonstrated it last Sunday at the Gemelli Polyclinic. When the Pope was re-hospitalized last week during dreary, dark, drizzling days, the city took on a pessimistic mien. Next day came news of the Holy Father's operation, and the sense of foreboding grew along with the number of satellite trucks and cameras parked outside the hospital watching and waiting. Reporters, producers and news personalities started arriving one after the other, some manifestly disgruntled to have been pulled away from the glittering red carpets of the Oscars to the damp muddy knoll outside the Gemelli. Ominous weather and bleak predictions were the backdrop for Sunday morning's broadcasts. As the television presenters schooled their features into a properly concerned expression and prepared to somberly announce that the Pope would miss the Angelus for the first time in 26 years, sunlight reappeared for the first time in days. And with the sun came the Pope. Weak, hand at his throat, he appeared at his window and blessed all those gathered below. The visible shock of the assembled journalists was worth a thousand words. Seasoned journalists, world-weary and jaded, suddenly found themselves slack-jawed in utter amazement. One television producer, unable to conceal her admiration, shook her head and exclaimed aloud, "This guy's a [expletive] superhero! Mike Tyson, eat your heart out!" John Paul II wins by knockout.