On "Inaudible Whispers"

At Easter Mass, the Pope attempted to say a blessing.

Pope John Paul II made a relatively long appearance before tens of thousands of worshipers here this Easter Sunday, but when he tried to speak, only an inaudible whisper came out of his mouth.

Is it possible to produce an inaudible whisper? If the crowds couldn't hear the pope, how did the reporter know that an actual whisper had escaped? I think that classifying something as a whisper--in this context, at least--demands that some of the sound gets through to the listeners.

Even still, as is generally true with spiritual matters, a form of communication occurred that transcended the traditional senses:

"Even though he couldn't speak, it was a message that I heard inside me," said Cristiana Cojazzi, 39, a doctor whose eyes welled up watching the ailing John Paul II at his window above the crowds on St. Peter's Square. "It was not disappointing. It was as if the message was heard inside my heart."