The Vatican has given an update on Pope Francis If the 88-year-old stays in the hospital with pneumonia.
He has undergone treatment in the Gemelli hospital in Rome, where he was admitted to struggling with respiratory difficulties on 14 February.
Further research, however, showed that he had pneumonia in both lungs.
In an early morning update that was given today, the shortest since he was admitted, the Vatican said that “Pope Francis rested well.”
The doctors of the Pontiff said on Friday that there was no threatening risk for his life, but that he was “not out of danger.”
His hospitalization has doubted Francis's assets to continue as head of the nearly 1.4 billion Catholics in the world.
But the Vatican State Secretary Pietro Parolin rejected this as 'useless speculation' in an interview published today with Corriere della Sera Daily.
“Now we are thinking of the health of the Holy Father, his recovery, his return to the Vatican: these are the only things that matter,” said the cardinal.
His doctor today revealed that although his condition is not life threatening, Francis will continue to be in the hospital 'at least the next week' in the hospital '
A non pray in a statue of Pope St. John Paul II Buiten Gemelli University Hospital, where Pope Francis is admitted to the hospital for bronchitis treatment
Sergio Alfieri speaks during a press conference in the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is included for treatment
Parolin said he had not been to see the pope personally, and said he was available, but so far there was no need.
“It is better if he remains protected and has as few visitors as possible, to let him rest and make the treatment that he undergoes more effectively,” he added.
Francis, who stays in a special papal suite on the 10th floor of the Gemelli hospital, has moved between his bed, a chair and an adjacent chapel where he prays.
Doctor Sergio Alfieri told reporters yesterday that the state of the Pontiff has improved somewhat, so that doctors can lower the amount of medication he steps.
He stays in the hospital “at least for the following week,” said Alfieri.
“If we send him to Santa Marta (his house in the Vatican), he will start working again as before,” he said.
Asked if the pope would be good enough to lead the Angelus prayer from his hospital window this Sunday, Alfieri said: “The Pope will decide.”
The doctor said: “The actual risk in these cases is that the germs pass the blood,” which could lead to sepsis, a life -threatening condition.
Pope Francis, who is being treated in the hospital for double pneumonia, is not in danger to death, but has not yet healed, has unveiled his doctor. Shown above is the last time the pope was photographed on February 14, 2025
Doctor Luigi Carbone said that the Pope, who had removed some of one of his lungs as a young man, now has a chronic lung condition and “by definition is a fragile patient.”
But Alfieri emphasized that “at the same time has an incredible resilience – how many others would have endured all these infections with the workload he has?”
He added that Francis has trouble breathing, but was not on machines and 'was in good spirits'. He still has the humor of 'a 70-year-old, maybe a 50-year-old'.
While his stay in the hospital continues, some Cardinals from Francis started to respond to the obvious question circulating: whether Francis could resign if he becomes irreversibly ill and is unable to continue.
Francis said he would consider it, after Pope Benedict XVI has opened the door 'for popes that are retiring, but he has shown no signs of resignation and has recently claimed that the task of Pope is for life.
But the question is now in the air, since Benedict was the first pope in 600 years to retire when he concluded in 2013 that he did not have the physical strength to continue.
“Everything is possible,” said Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the Archbishop of Marseille, France, when they were asked on Thursday.
But there is no indication that Francis is in no way incapacitated for work or even considering stepping aside. During his stay in the hospital, he continued to work, including making bishop appointments.
After a stay at the hospital in 2021, he lit up when he heard that some clergymen are said to prepare for a conclave to choose his successor.
Francis had an acute case of pneumonia in 2023 and is susceptible to respiratory infections in the winter.
Pope Francis in his wheelchair in the Vatican on the day of the jubilee of the armed forces, February 9, 2025
Doctors say that pneumonia in such a fragile, older patient makes him particularly sensitive to complications, given the difficulty in effectively dispeling liquid from his lungs. Although his heart is strong, Francis is not a particularly healthy 88-year-old.
He is overweight, is not physically active, uses a wheelchair because of bad knees, had a part of one lung that has been removed as a young man and admitted that he was a non -terrible cooperative patient in the past.
Francis has had two longer hospital enclosures during his almost 12-year-old pontificate. He spent 10 days in Gemelli in 2021 when he had removed 33 centimeters (13 inches) from his colon. In 2023 he was admitted for an operation for an operation to remove scar tissue and to repair a belly hernia.
While he recovers this time, the Catholic believers participated in special moments of prayer.
In the Philippines, the largest Catholic nation in Asia, Filipino worshipers gave an hour of prayer in the Cathedral of Manila for the rapid recovery of the Pope.
Other Catholics were encouraged to pray in their homes and communities for the Pope, who attracted a record audience of 6 million people when he celebrated Mass in a park in a Manila in 2015, according to official estimates at that time.
“The Philippines have a place that is very close to his heart,” said the Vatican ambassador in Manila, Archbishop Charles John Brown.
