Good Friday ceremonies looked defective without Pope John Paul II.

On Thursday evening, the pope was only able to watch from his apartment on television as a cardinal read his message to the followers in a service at St. Peter’s Basilica.

“With mind and heart I am close to you,’’ the pontiff said in his message.

The whole catholic word couldn’t help compassionating with its 84-year-old patron who suffers from the breathing tube inserted into his throat, severe Parkinson’s disease and knee and hip ailments.

``It’s very obvious that the pope is carrying a very heavy cross indeed, and he is giving a marvelous example of patience in the face of suffering, and of long suffering which in itself is a virtue,’’ Foley, a top Vatican official, said Friday on Vatican Radio.

Because of such a bunch of diseases the pope will miss the main ceremonies of Holy Week.

On Good Friday, John Paul is expected to make his presence felt to participants through a video connection.
The pope is expected to bless the crowds on Easter Sunday, the culminating point of Holy Week.

He chose his guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to compose this year’s meditations to be read aloud during the Good Friday procession.