Pope John Paul II may be out of the hospital in three weeks and in time for Easter, his spokesman said in a cautious declaration Thursday, stressing that the frail pontiff's health continues to improve as he leads the Roman Catholic Church from his hospital room.
The Vatican said John Paul is eager to leave the hospital but accepts his doctors' advice not to rush his discharge.
A week after the 84-year-old pope was taken to the hospital after his second breathing crisis in a month, spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls would offer no firm prediction of when John Paul would return to the Vatican or confirm any of his plans for Holy Week celebrations leading up to Easter on March 27.
"There's no precise date yet. I wouldn't want to put forth a likely date because it might change in a positive or negative way," Navarro-Valls replied when asked about the pope's eventual release.