A girl prays on the statue of John Paul II outdoors the Gemelli College Hospital the place Pope Francis is hospitalized with pneumonia, in Rome on March 9, 2025 (Photograph by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP or licensor / AFP)
VATICAN CITY, Holy See — Pope Francis, who the Vatican stated is responding properly to therapy for pneumonia, thanked his docs and healthcare staff on Sunday as he missed delivering a fourth straight Angelus prayer in particular person.
The 88-year-old, in Rome’s Gemelli hospital since February 14, issued a written Angelus during which he thanked those that volunteer to assist others in want, praising their “closeness and tenderness”.
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“I too expertise the thoughtfulness of service and the tenderness of care, specifically from the docs and healthcare staff, whom I thank from the underside of my coronary heart,” he stated.
“We’d like this, the ‘miracle of tenderness’ which accompanies those that are in adversity, bringing a bit of mild into the evening of ache,” he stated within the textual content revealed by the Vatican.
The chief of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics has hung out on the Gemelli earlier than, notably for colon surgical procedure in 2021 and a hernia operation in 2023.
This hospitalisation has been extra critical, nonetheless, with Francis struggling a number of respiratory crises, prompting fears the street to restoration could be lengthy, or may power the aged pontiff to resign.
On Saturday, the Vatican stated the pope appeared lastly to be responding properly to therapy and had seen “a gradual, slight enchancment”, marking a number of days with out crises.
Although the pope doesn’t have a fever, his docs need to see extra constructive outcomes “within the coming days” earlier than giving a prognosis, a night medical bulletin stated.
On Sunday, the Vatican press workplace stated the pope was “secure”.
“The docs confirmed the scenario stays the identical as yesterday,” and the pope had seen “slight enhancements… in a posh total image”, it stated.
The following bulletin is predicted on Monday afternoon.
Ailing Pope Francis has ‘Given a lot’
Francis has been alternating relaxation, prayer and bits of labor when he feels as much as it.
On Sunday he obtained Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, and Edgar Pena Parra, a Venezuelan archbishop who can be a senior Vatican official.
He continued his therapy, doing each his physiotherapy and his respiration workouts, the press workplace stated.
Francis additionally adopted religious workouts being held on the Vatican through video hyperlink, although whereas he might see contributors, they might not see the pope, it stated.
Individuals who gathered in St Peter’s Sq. on Sunday, the place Francis would normally stand at a Vatican window to learn the Angelus to crowds under, stated his presence was sorely missed.
“He is a superb one who has given a lot and I hope that he can return as quickly as doable”, stated Diana Desiderio, who volunteers with the civil safety company within the Italian metropolis of Pescara.
She and fellow volunteers are praying that Francis will “return to the window once more and convey peace and serenity to everybody, as a result of we want it”, she informed AFP.
The pope ended the Angelus along with his conventional name for peace in conflicts, “specifically in tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo”.
He stated he had “learnt with concern of the resumption of violence in some areas of Syria: I hope that they stop definitively, with full respect for all ethnic and spiritual elements of society”.
Catholics have additionally been gathering on the Gemelli hospital to wish for Francis or go away flowers, candles and playing cards.
Giuseppe Antonio Perazzo, 74, was on the hospital for the second Sunday in a row, dressed neatly in a swimsuit and tie within the hope that the pontiff may seem on the window.
An indication he propped up in sight of the home windows of the pope’s rooms urged the Argentine pontiff — a notoriously headstrong affected person — to “preserve doing what the docs and nurses let you know to do”.
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