Stary Sacz - POPE John Paul II (79) yesterday resumed his tour of his native Poland, shrugging off a bout of 'flu which interrupted his visit on Tuesday. After a last-minute decision to go ahead with the day's events, the Pope was driven to Stary Sacz, a mountain town, to canonise Princess Kinga, a 13th century noblewoman.
He was greeted by an ecstatic crowd of 650,000 people which arrived at night with no guarantee that the Pope would be well enough to appear in public on the 12th day of his trip. The Pope, looking tired, conducted the entire Mass but let a deputy read his homily. "I would say that he is more or less back to normal, with the exception of his voice," said chief Vatican spokesman Mgr Joaquin Navarro-Valls.