Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and the founder of the Special Olympics, is hospitalized in critical but stable condition, the Shriver family said Friday.

The family said they are grateful for the prayers of her many friends.

Family spokesman Stephen Rivers said Shriver was surrounded by her family at Cape Cod Hospital. He says her husband, children and all her grandchildren are at her side.

No more information is being released at this time on her diagnosis.

Shriver is the sister of US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the late US Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the late President John F. Kennedy, the 88-year-old Shriver has been hospitalized several times in the past decade for illnesses and broken bones.

In 1984, Ronald Reagan presented Eunice Shriver the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts with the developmentally disabled.