Vatican City ? Breaking a tradition he kept even after being shot two decades ago, Pope John Paul II will not lead Sunday prayers for the first time in his 26-year papacy as he recovers from a throat operation to help him breathe.

With the 84-year-old pontiff advised by attending physicians not to speak after surgery to insert a breathing tube and too delicate to appear at his hospital window, a top Vatican official will bless the faithful assembled at St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said Saturday.

The Holy See confirmed the pontiff did not plan to make a brief public appearance at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital during Sunday’s Angelus blessing, a weekly tradition dear to the pope.

Instead, he will “join” the prayers in what the Vatican newspaper called an “Angelus of hope.”

While there was no indication the decision signaled any change in the pope’s condition, it was a sign of the uncertainty the pope’s incapacity may create. The Vatican has not said when John Paul will leave the hospital and another medical bulletin is not scheduled until Monday.

On Saturday evening, the ANSA news agency, citing unspecified medical sources, said the pope’s condition was “satisfactory.” It also reported that blood tests showed no signs of possible infection.

Today will be the first time the pope will neither appear nor have his voice heard at an Angelus service.

In 1981, after being shot by a Turkish gunman, he found the strength to address the faithful from his hospital room. After he had surgery to remove an intestinal tumor in 1992, the Vatican taped a message and prayer by John Paul and played the recording for the faithful.

Doctors have advised the pope not to speak for several days as he recovers from tracheotomy surgery. What the Vatican described as “elective” surgery, and not an emergency operation, was performed after his second breathing crisis in less than a month.

Two nuns talk under an umbrella near St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on Saturday. Today will be the first time the pope will neither appear nor have his voice heard at an Angelus service.

The pope’s transport by ambulance to Gemelli on Thursday crushed hopes that he was out of danger after a 10-day hospital stay that ended Feb. 10. Just a day earlier, he made his longest public appearance since leaving the hospital earlier this month.

The health troubles likely will amplify debate among the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics on a possible papal resignation — something the pope has rejected as he draws comparisons between his suffering and essential elements of Christian faith, such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.