ROME (Reuters)-Pope Francis is slowly recovering his strength in the hospital, but needs to “relearn to speak” after prolonged use of high-flow oxygen therapy, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández said on Friday.
The cardinal, who is the head of the Vatican doctrinal office, rejected the speculation that the pontiff would retire and said he was again what he was before.
“The Pope is doing very well, but oxygen with high flowing dry flow all. He needs to relearn to speak, but his general physical condition is the same as before,” Fernández said in a presentation of a new book by Francisco on poetry.
The 88 -year -old has been hospitalized for five weeks, suffering from double pneumonia, during which the Vatican released only a brief audio of his speech on March 6, when his voice was broken, breathless and hard to understand.
In his latest health update released on Friday, the Vatican said that the Pope’s condition remained stable with “small improvements in breathing and mobility.”
The Vatican confirmed that he has not been using mechanical ventilation to help with night breathing since Monday, but that he received oxygen through a small hose under his nose for most of his time.
There is still no official information about when he could return home at the Vatican, and Fernández said he did not know if he would be discharged in time for Easter, which takes place on April 20.
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“He could come back, but doctors want to be 100% certainly because he believes that, in the short time he remains, he wants to devote himself entirely to others, not himself,” said Fernández.
Asked if he thought Francis could resign, the cardinal said, “I really don’t think so, no.”
Francisco has had several health problems in the last two years and is prone to pulmonary infections because he had pleurisy when he was a young adult and had part of a removed lung.
