Pope John Paul will appear at his hospital window on Sunday and greet the faithful, but will almost certainly not speak, his spokesman said today.
Instead, as happened last weekend, an aide at the nearby Vatican will preside over the regular Sunday Angelus blessing.
"The Angelus will be like last Sunday," spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters after visiting the 84-year-old Pope in the Gemelli hospital.
Navarro-Valls added that the Pope would make the sign of the cross with his hand to people gathered outside his window.
The Pope is recovering from throat surgery and last Sunday was the first time during his 26-year papacy that he failed to preside over the Angelus and pronounce the blessing.
John Paul, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease, was rushed to hospital twice last month with acute breathing problems, forcing doctors to perform a tracheotomy inserting a tube into his windpipe to let air flow freely into his lungs.
"The rehabilitation is continuing to go well," Navarro-Valls said today.
Italy's European Affairs Minister Rocco Buttiglione, a friend of John Paul, told the German television station N24 he was sure the Pope was in control of Church affairs.
"I can tell you with complete certainty he has adequate control," he said. "If he did not have adequate control, he would step down from his office."
The Pope has made clear on several occasions he has no plans to retire or abdicate, something no head of the Church has done voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.
The Vatican has not yet said when the Pope might leave hospital, although he is believed to be keen to return home before Easter, which falls on March 27 this year.