Vatican Rule Might Lengthen Pope Benedicts Stay in Australia for Days!!!

First let us pray for Cardinal Cassey and hope he recovers!!! However I was not aware of this Catholic/Vatican Rule:

We learn from the Australian Daily Telegraph

The Pope's World Youth Day visit has been thrown into potential disarray by one of his Vatican lieutenants - a Sydney-born Cardinal - being rushed to hospital gravely ill. Sydney-born retired Cardinal Edward Cassidy was hospitalised on Wednesday night. While the extent of the 84-year-old's illness is unknown, Vatican officials are understood to be in talks regarding the possibility the Pope may have to extend his stay. Under Vatican rules, if a Cardinal dies during a Pope's visit to a city, the Pope must perform the funeral service in that city. At an inter-Christian Ecumenical meeting held by the Pope in the Crypt of St Mary's Cathedral this morning, the Pope said he prayed for the Cardinal's speedy recovery and asked the group to join in prayer. The high profile Cardinal is a former President of the Pontifical Counjcil for Promoting Christian Unity and has a long association with the Pope. In 1999 he wrote the Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification. A spokeswoman from the Australian Bishops Conference said the Cardinal was taken to hospital complaining of heart illness, but they expect he will be released over the weekend. ”We expect him to make a full recovery,’’ the spokeswoman said.

Speaking of illiness it appears that some Pilgrims brought an unwelcomed guest-THE FLU!!!

In that same article:

Meanwhile, sickness and injury continue to scourge pilgrims visiting Sydney for World Youth Day (WYD). More pilgrims have fallen ill with influenza and gastroenteritis, and almost 250 have received emergency treatment for injuries suffered at WYD event sites. Almost 120 pilgrims had been diagnosed with influenza or were showing flu-like symptoms as of 10am today, NSW Health said in a statement. Affected pilgrims have been staying at schools, a church hall and Sydney's Olympic Park at Homebush. "Since yesterday morning there has been a steady increase in the incidence of influenza among pilgrims," NSW Ambulance Service chief executive Greg Rochford told reporters in Sydney.

A further 23 pilgrims staying at St Therese's Primary School at Denistone, in Sydney's north, were suffering viral gastroenteritis. In terms of medical emergencies, WYD is believed to have increased the number of calls for ambulances and attendance at hospital emergency departments. "On the emergency front, (in the 24 hours to 9am today) there were 79 presentations of people who identified themselves as World Youth Day pilgrims at emergency departments and that's up to 242 since we started counting on July 9," Mr Rochford said.

He said there had been a "broad spectrum" of incidents that had resulted in pilgrims needing medical assistance. "(There have been a lot of) trips and falls related to the Barangaroo site," Mr Rochford said. "We have a report of a fractured nose, and unfortunately an elderly lady who fractured her femur." Mr Rochford said Super Holy Thursday brought a 4.7 per cent increase in activity for ambulance services compared to what would "normally be expected on a Thursday at this time of year".