Pope Francis, whose state of health is in “marked improvement”, spent a second consecutive night at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, where he is receiving antibiotic treatment for infectious bronchitis.
Thursday evening, the medical team wanted to be reassuring about the health of the 86-year-old pope, saying that the antibiotic treatment by infusion was producing the expected effects and that the pope could be discharged from the hospital “in the next few days”. Thursday, the Vatican had already indicated that Jorge Bergoglio was better and had “returned to work”. But his participation in the Easter celebrations, the highlight of the year for Catholics with Christmas, remains uncertain, starting with the Palm Sunday mass scheduled for Sunday in Saint Peter’s Square and marking the opening of Holy Week.
The Argentinian Jesuit, who suffers from chronic health problems and uses a wheelchair due to knee pain, is hospitalized in the private apartment reserved for popes on the 10th floor of the Gemelli University Hospital, where Pope John Paul II had stayed several times in his time.
After mentioning “scheduled exams”, the Vatican spokesman finally revealed on Wednesday evening that Francis suffered from a “respiratory infection” and had experienced difficulty breathing in recent days.
On Twitter, the pope said Thursday “touched by the many messages received in recent hours”, from bishops of several countries to US President Joe Biden. “I express my gratitude to everyone for their closeness and their prayers,” he wrote.
“Sorry”
“I hope he will recover very quickly and that he will be able to celebrate Easter here in Saint-Pierre,” Tina Montalbano, a 60-year-old Italian tourist guide who met on Thursday morning, told AFP. “The fear is still there, but it seems like everything is fine at the moment,” she added.
This sudden hospitalization took the world by surprise, especially since on Wednesday morning, Jorge Bergoglio had again participated as every week in the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, during which he appeared smiling, greeting the faithful from his ” popemobile”.
The bishop of Rome had already been hospitalized for ten days at the Gemelli hospital in July 2021 for a heavy colon operation. He admitted having kept “after-effects” of the anesthesia, which led him to rule out knee surgery so far. The pain caused by this joint, which notably forced him to cancel several appointments in 2022 and to postpone a trip to Africa, is at the heart of conjecture on his possible renunciation. The head of the Catholic Church has always left the door open to this possibility. His predecessor Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013, taking the world by surprise.
François, for his part, blows hot and cold on this delicate subject. After having mentioned in July the possibility of “putting oneself aside”, he had judged in February that the “resignation” of a pope should “not become a fashion”, ensuring that this hypothesis did not appear “on his agenda for the moment”.
The pope is constantly monitored by a team of caregivers, both in the Vatican and during his trips abroad. A precaution all the more necessary since he has a heavy medical history behind him: at 21, he almost died of pleurisy and suffered the partial removal of a lung.
Pope Francis, whose state of health is in “marked improvement”, spent a second consecutive night at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, where he received antibiotic treatment for infectious bronchitis. On Thursday evening, the medical team s wanted to be reassuring about the health of the 86-year-old pope, saying that the antibiotic treatment by infusion produced the expected effects and…