Pope Francis, 88, suffers from a “complex clinical picture” and needs “adequate hospital permanence”, as reported by the Vatican at 13.00 on Monday, in a statement that for the first time points to the convalescence will be for Indefinite time and without a short time. Until now the Pontiff had only suspended his agenda between Friday and Monday, but this new part goes beyond the simple update on a stable situation and without fever. In fact, the traditional Wednesday audience has already been canceled. “The results of the tests carried out in recent days and today have demonstrated a polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract that has forced to further modify the therapy,” says the Vatican. Francisco has spent his third night at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, through a respiratory road infection. Anyway, after the statement, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, has said that the Pope “is in a good mood.”
In the afternoon, after 19.00, a second medical part has indicated that the pontiff still does not fever and that the conditions are “stationary.” “This morning has received the Eucharist and has been dedicated to some work activities and the reading of texts,” adds the statement. The Vatican points out that the Pope “is excited by the numerous messages of affection and closeness” he receives.
On his fourth day of convalescence, Bruni had limited himself early today to information similar to that of previous days: “The Pope has rested well and has spent a quiet night. This morning he has had breakfast and, as usual, he has dedicated himself to reading some newspapers. Therapies continue. ” It was the routine of these days, and in the afternoon some was added. At first there was talk of a stable situation, an improvement in the values of the analysis and absence of fever. The last part, on Sunday afternoon, indicated that “the clinical conditions are stationary.” He added that Francisco had followed the Mass on television and then alternated rest and reading. However, today the medical part has advanced several hours with a very different medical scenario from the weekend.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio must recover from bronchitis that he dragged for almost two weeks and that he did not just heal, especially because he did not rest and maintained the same pace of work. On Sunday, in a message that was read in the Angelus, Francisco transmitted a feeling of normality, of a simple step through the hospital to rest and heal well: “I would have liked to be with you but, as you know, I am in the Gemelli Polyclinic Because I still need some care for my bronchitis. ”
He has transpired that he has also called two days in a row, Friday and Saturday, to the parish of the Sagrada Familia de Gaza. “He was in a good mood, with his voice a little tired, but he wanted to know how we are,” he explained to the Italian environment Tgcom24 one of those responsible for this church. It is a custom that Francisco has maintained these months and calls this Gazatí community daily to show him his closeness.
On Friday, when he was admitted, the Pope had also maintained five audiences with different personalities, but breathed with fatigue and cost him to speak. He had been like that ten days, and finally his collaborators convinced him that the only way to heal was to stop and be treated properly in the hospital. It was not an emergency. The truth is that the lungs are one of the weak points of Bergoglio, who was removed part of the right in his youth, and since 2023 of health. In recent weeks, he himself had counted in public that he suffered bronchitis, had a weak voice and twice renounced reading his speech.
Francisco, the second most old Pope since Leo XIII, who died at 92 in 1902, has an increasingly fragile health. He already walks with difficulty, for pain in the right knee, and has moved for two years in a wheelchair or with the help of a cane. It has passed three times through the operating room: removal of part of the colon in 2021, right knee in 2022, intestinal obstruction in 2023. plus a cataract operation in 2019. In June 2023 it was already admitted, but that time of urgency, by a Ailment similar to the current one.
As for the agenda that awaits him, if there are no changes, the Pope has programmed his participation in numerous acts of the jubilee held this year, in addition to his usual daily audiences. With regard to trips, there is none planned, although one is studied in May to Türkiye, on the occasion of the 1,700 anniversary of the first council of Nicea. Francisco also, due to the crisis of the arrival of immigrants, but so far nothing has been completed.
