Francis’ health is “significantly improved,” says the Vatican in a press release issued on Thursday, March 30, the day after the Pope entered Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
“During the planned clinical investigations, it was established that the Holy Father was suffering from an infectious bronchitis that required antibiotic treatment through infusions that showed the expected effects,” we can read in the few lines that the medical team of the responsible hospital written by the 86-year-old Pope.
“According to the planned development, the resignation of the Holy Father could take place in the coming days,” the doctors continued.
“respiratory infection”
The Vatican announced at noon that the “Pope’s clinical picture” was “gradually” improving and that he was continuing the “planned treatment”.
The Vatican also claimed Francis “read some newspapers” and “returned to his work.” “Before lunch he went to the small chapel of his private apartment, where he meditated and received the Eucharist,” the Vatican finally said. He is being treated on the tenth floor of the hospital in a service intended to welcome the popes.
On Wednesday March 29, François was hospitalized in the early afternoon after suffering from breathing difficulties. He underwent a series of tests which revealed that he had a ‘respiratory infection’ that required a hospital stay of several days. The Vatican had nevertheless made it clear that it was not about the Covid.
When the Vatican announced the hospitalization of Francis, who had a partial lung removed in October 1957, the Vatican initially claimed it was a visit to conduct “scheduled” examinations.
But that official version was quickly demolished as the pope was forced to cancel his audiences for the next day, and particularly appointments scheduled for Wednesday evenings, such as with Bishop Paul Richard Gallagher, his foreign secretary, La Croix learned.
holy week
On Wednesday morning, the Pope arrived for his weekly audience and undertook his usual Popemobile tour of St. Peter’s Square before continuing his series of catechesis on evangelization.
The 86-year-old Pope’s last public hospitalization dates back to July 2021, when he underwent surgery for an operation on his colon that was also “planned”. His hospitalization has been extended beyond the originally announced period to “optimize medical and rehabilitation care,” the Vatican said in press releases.
François also suffers from severe knee pain, which has forced him to regularly use a wheelchair since May 2022. From now on he never moves without a cane, which he uses to support himself even for a few steps from his popemobile to his chair.
This new hospital admission comes on the eve of the beginning of Holy Week, which is due to begin on Sunday, April 2, with the celebration of Palm Sunday, which Francis is theoretically supposed to lead in St. Peter’s Square.
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