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COPYRIGHT 2005 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service
Byline: Tom Hundley
ROME _ For at least a decade, the Roman Catholic Church has learned to live with the physical limitations of its ailing leader, but Pope John Paul II's latest health crisis will undoubtedly intensify concerns about who runs the church when the pontiff is so obviously enfeebled.
After suffering a recurrence of the breathing difficulties that led to his 10-day hospitalization earlier this month, the pope on Thursday was again rushed to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic where doctors performed a tracheostomy, inserting a tube into his throat to help him breathe.
The pope's physicians have told him not to attempt to speak for several days, but outside medical experts fear that the pope's speech faculty could be impaired for a much longer time. That would severely curtail the pope's already limited...
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