Pope Francis celebrates 10 years at the head of the Catholic Church
Pope Francis, 86, was admitted to a hospital in Rome on Wednesday to be treated for a respiratory infection. According to the Vatican, the Pope has complained of breathing difficulties in the past few days and has tested negative for Covid19.
Earlier, the Vatican had said the Pope had been admitted for testing and may spend the night in hospital.
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“In the last few days, Pope Francis has been complaining of some breathing difficulties and this afternoon he went to the A. Gemelli Polyclinic to undergo some medical tests (COVID19 infection excluded), which will require a few days of appropriate medical therapy in the hospital ” he told the press the director of the press office of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published an article saying that the Pope arrived in an ambulance late in the morning after feeling ill with heart problems and lung pains. The newspaper attributes the information to sources at the hospital where Pope Gemelli was taken.
According to the newspaper, before feeling ill, the pope attended a general audience in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican and then went home.
1 of 2 Pope Francis on March 29, 2023 — Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP Pope Francis on March 29, 2023 — Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP
Earlier in the day I smiled in the popemobile
Pope Francis celebrated 10 years of papacy in March. He attended the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday morning, where he appeared smiling as he greeted the faithful in his “popemobile”.
However, according to photographers from the AFP news agency, he was unable to move and appeared to be in severe pain.
Francisco, who has been in a wheelchair since May 2022 due to pain in his right knee, spent 10 days at Gemelli Hospital in July 2021 for colon surgery.
The Pope later explained that this operation had left him with consequences and that he had decided to rule out knee surgery.
It was already known that he suffers from chronic sciatic pain, which causes him to limp, which is why he sometimes had to miss official ceremonies.
Gemelli Hospital is the medical center where Pope John Paul II was hospitalized and where he had a benign tumor removed from his colon in 1992.
speculation and mysteries
In interviews over the last few months, the Pope has mentioned the possibility of resigning, as did his predecessor Benedict XVI. did in 2013. Benedict died at the end of 2022.
Last July, Francisco confessed that he could no longer travel at the same pace as before and even mentioned that he could walk. In February he said that the resignation of a pope must not be fashionable and that such an idea is not currently on his agenda.
2 of 2 Image of the hospital where the Pope was taken on March 29, 2023 — Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP Image of the hospital where the Pope was taken on March 29, 2023 — Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP
For a year now, Francisco has had a personal health assistant, a nurse, who accompanies him constantly.
The health of the popes has always been a matter for the Vatican and has generally been kept secret.
Interview with Argentine journalist
Argentine doctor and journalist Nelson Castro recently presented in Rome a book on the health of the popes and the diseases they have suffered from since Leo XIII. suffered, and spoke privately with Francis on the subject.
He told Castro that he has made a full recovery and has not felt restricted since.
The pope also confessed that while living in Argentina he used Chinese acupuncture to treat back pain, suffered from gallstones and had a temporary heart problem in 2004 due to a mild narrowing of the arteries.