Candles with portraits of Pope Francis and Padre Pio are set on the backside of a statue of Pope John Paul II exterior the Gemelli hospital the place Pope Francis is hospitalized for checks and therapy for bronchitis in Rome, on February 19, 2025. Pope Francis, who has been identified with pneumonia in each lungs, handed a “peaceable evening”, the Vatican stated on February 19, 2025, amid rising considerations over the 88-year-old’s situation. (Photograph by Tiziana FABI / AFP)
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis’ general scientific situation is “bettering barely” and his coronary heart is working effectively as he battles pneumonia, the Vatican stated Thursday, as a few of his cardinals cheered him on and insisted that the Catholic Church was very a lot alive and effectively even in his absence.
In a late replace, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated Francis has no fever and that his key coronary heart parameters “proceed to be secure.”
The 88-year-old pope was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 after a case of bronchitis worsened; medical doctors later identified the onset of pneumonia in each lungs on high of asthmatic bronchitis and prescribed “absolute relaxation.”
“In case you actually need him to relaxation, you need to hospitalize him,” quipped Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille, France, referring to Francis’ work ethic.
Aveline was talking at a Vatican information convention a couple of Mediterranean youth peace initiative alongside his counterpart from Barcelona, Cardinal Juan Josè Omella. However given the restricted quantity of details about Francis’ situation, they have been peppered with questions in regards to the pope’s well being and whether or not he would possibly determine to resign if he doesn’t get well absolutely.
“Every thing is feasible,” Aveline stated.
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Regardless, Omella insisted that the lifetime of the church continued even with Francis within the hospital.
“Popes change, we bishops change, clergymen in parishes change, communities change. However the prepare continues being on the transfer,” Omella stated.
One other cardinal, Gianfranco Ravasi, had commented earlier within the day on the potential for resignation when requested if Francis would possibly determine to comply with within the footsteps of Pope Benedict XVI and step down if he turns into too ailing. Benedict grew to become the primary pope in 600 years to retire when he concluded in 2013 that he didn’t have the bodily power to hold on the trials of the globe-trotting papacy.
“There isn’t any query that if he (Francis) was in a scenario the place his capacity to have direct contact (with folks) as he likes to do … was compromised, then I feel he would possibly determine to resign,” Ravasi was quoted as telling RTL 102.5 radio.
Francis has already confirmed that shortly after being elected pontiff he wrote a resignation letter in case medical issues impeded him from finishing up his duties. There isn’t any provision in canon legislation for what to do if a pope turns into incapacitated.
There isn’t any indication Francis is in anyway incapacitated. Bruni stated he awoke Thursday, received away from bed and had breakfast in an armchair, and labored from his hospital room together with his aides. Blood checks have confirmed a “slight enchancment” in some irritation indices however it’s going to nonetheless be a while earlier than medical doctors will know if the assorted therapies are working.
The pope had an acute case of pneumonia in 2023 and is liable to respiratory infections in winter.
Medical doctors say pneumonia in such a fragile, aged affected person makes him significantly liable to issues given the problem in with the ability to successfully expel fluid from his lungs. Whereas his coronary heart is robust, Francis isn’t a very wholesome 88-year-old. He’s obese, isn’t bodily lively, makes use of a wheelchair due to dangerous knees, had a part of one lung eliminated as a younger man, and has admitted to being a not-terribly-cooperative affected person previously.
Archbishop Giuseppe Satriano of Bari stated he was unhappy that Francis was sick and that rumors about his situation have been circulating, however assured he would get well. He recalled that Francis proved the naysayers flawed when he accomplished a gruelling four-nation journey to Asia in September.
“Even through the lengthy journey in Asia, the Swiss Guards and gendarmes got here again extra drained than he, and all of us feared he’d come again destroyed,” Satriano stated. “However he’s a fighter, so I feel he’ll win this battle.”
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