Pope Francis’ condition isn't life-threatening, but he's not out of danger, his medical team says, as the 88-year-old pontiff marked his first week in a hospital with pneumonia on top of chronic bronchitis.
Francis’ doctors delivered their first in-person update on the pope's condition, saying that he will remain in hospital at least all of next week.
The pope is receiving occasional supplements of oxygen and is responding to strengthened drug therapy for pneumonia, doctors said.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 after a case of bronchitis worsened.
Doctors later diagnosed a complex respiratory infection, involving bacteria, virus and other organisms and the onset of pneumonia in both lungs on top of asthmatic bronchitis.
They prescribed “absolute rest”.
As his hospital stay drags on, some of Francis’ cardinals have begun responding to the obvious question that is circulating: whether Francis might resign if he becomes irreversibly sick and unable to carry on.
Francis has said he would consider it, after Pope Benedict XVI “opened the door” to popes retiring.
But he has shown no signs of stepping down and in fact has asserted recently that the job of pope is for life.
The Vatican late Thursday reported a “slight improvement” in his overall clinical condition, with his heart working well.
But it will still take some time to understand if the various drug therapies are working, and outside doctors have said that regardless, recovery from pneumonia in such a fragile patient could take up to two weeks.
According to the one-line morning bulletin Friday: “the night went well, this morning Pope Francis got up and had breakfast”.
Francis confirmed in 2022 that, shortly after being elected pontiff, he wrote a resignation letter in case medical problems impeded him from carrying out his duties.
There is no provision in canon law for what to do if a pope becomes incapacitated.
But there is no indication Francis is in any way incapacitated or is even considering stepping aside.
During his hospital stay, he has continued to work, including making bishop appointments.
After a hospital stay in 2021, he bristled when he learned that some clergy were allegedly already preparing for a conclave to elect his successor.
Francis had an acute case of pneumonia in 2023 and is prone to respiratory infections in winter.
Doctors say pneumonia in such a fragile, elderly patient makes him particularly prone to complications given the difficulty in being able to effectively expel fluid from his lungs.
While his heart is strong, Francis isn’t a particularly healthy 88-year-old.
He is overweight, isn’t physically active, uses a wheelchair because of bad knees, had part of one lung removed as a young man, and has admitted to being a not-terribly-cooperative patient in the past.
As he recovers, the Catholic faithful world wide have been praying for him.
In the Philippines, Asia’s largest Catholic nation, Filipino worshippers held an hour-long prayer at the Manila Cathedral on Friday for the pope’s rapid recovery.
Other Catholics were urged to pray in their homes and communities for the pontiff, who drew a record crowd of six million people when he celebrated mass in a Manila park in 2015, according to official estimates at the time.
“The Philippines has a place very close to his heart,” said the Vatican’s ambassador to Manila, Archbishop Charles John Brown.
