A silent and apparently very sick Pope John Paul II joined thousands at a Good Friday service via a live video link from his private chapel at the Vatican.

For the first time in his 26 years as pope, John Paul, 84, had been too ill to attend a single Holy Week event. On Friday, his face was never shown as he sat in front of a backdrop of candles, white flowers and a gold crucifix as a cardinal read a brief message from him at the start of the ceremony. The Vatican offered no explanation, according to a New York Times report.

It has only been two weeks since the pope was discharged from his second hospitalization in a month for flu and severe breathing problems.

He is scheduled to deliver his traditional Easter blessing on Sunday morning, but it remains uncertain whether he will do so in person or on television.

“What we are seeing is the passing of the pope,” said John Wilkins, retired editor of the British Catholic magazine The Tablet. “How long that will take I don’t know, but this is on a different level than what we have been on before. It’s the passing of the pope, and it’s happening on television.”