[Hooly One]

Pope John Paul II has been taken to hospital in Rome after falling ill with influenza, Vatican sources have said.

The Pope was fighting for breath when he was hospitalised as an emergency late Tuesday, said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

"The flu which has been affecting the Holy Father for three days was complicated with acute inflammation of the larynx and laringo-spasm, a condition where one cannot catch one's breath,” Mr Navarro-Valls said.

The Vatican has denied speculation that Pope John Paul II had been put on a life-support machine.

The 84-year-old pontiff came down with the virus on Sunday, and cancelled all engagements for the week.

The Polish-born Pope also suffers from Parkinson's disease and painful knee and joint conditions.

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that a senior Vatican cardinal has joined the growing number of influential Catholic Church figures questioning the official Vatican ban on condom use.

Cardinal Georges Cottier, one of Pope John Paul II's preferred theologians, was quoted this week as saying the use of condoms may be legitimate to stop the spread of Aids in poor countries.

The cardinal said there was moral justification for condom use under certain circumstances to counter Aids.

Churchmen are arguing with increasing frequency that the traditional blanket ban on the use of condoms is no longer valid.

Cardinal Cottier said it was no longer a question only of allowing the transmission of life, but of actively preventing the transmission of death to a sexual partner.

This argument - of adopting the lesser of two evils - has also been proposed by bishops in France and Spain.


http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews...104311®ion=3