“I would like to thank you for the sentences (…): I feel your affection and your closeness And, at this particular moment, I feel like ‘carried’ and sustained by the people of God, ”wrote the 88 -year -old Argentine pontiff in his speech.
The spiritual leader of 1,400 million Catholics in the world is hospitalized at the Gemelli Clinic in Rome since February 14 by bronchitis, which resulted in double pneumonia. Since then, he has not made any public appearance.
This Sunday, He was absent from the traditional message of Angelus from the Plaza de San Pedro For the third consecutive week and did not do it from a hospital balcony, as he did during his hospitalization in 2021.
They report their health
His last medical part, released by the Holy See on Saturday night, informed that Its state is “stable”, after a relapse on Friday caused by a respiratory crisis of “Broncoospasmo”and that its forecast is still “reserved.”
After spending a “quiet” night, “the Pope has woken up, has had breakfast with coffee and read the newspapers as he usually does, and continues his treatment as always,” a Vatican source said Sunday.
Its treatment consists of alternating “non -invasive mechanical ventilation with long periods of oxygen therapy”, together with “respiratory physiotherapy”, according to Saturday’s last medical part.
Francisco also received this Sunday for the second time since his hospitalization to his Secretary of State, Cardinal Italian Pietro Parolin, and the Venezuelan Edgar Peña Parra, number 2 and number 3 of the Holy See, respectively.
On Friday all alarms jumped over their health. The new respiratory crisis worsened by the state of the first Latin American Pope, Hours after a Vatican source confirmed its exit from the “critical” state.
The doctors gave themselves on Saturday and Sunday to evaluate the impact of relapse, but, for the professor of geriatrics at the University of Florence, Andrea Ungar, this diagnosis could take even “10 days.”
Francisco, who in his message “from the hospital” highlights “the opportunity to share in the body and in the spirit the condition of so many patients and people who suffer”, also has words of thanks for doctors who “take care of him.”
“Absurd war”
This hospitalization, the fourth and longer since 2021, causes concern about the previous problems that weakened the health of Jorge Bergoglio in recent years: operations in the colon and the abdomen, and difficulties in walking.
The situation has also reopened questions about their ability to perform their functions, especially when canon law does not provide any disposition in case of a serious problem that may affect its lucidity.
During this time, he received the support of leaders from several countries such as Brazil, Venezuela and the United States, while the prayers occur for their speedy recovery, from Buenos Aires at the gates of their Roman hospital.
Hundreds of people gathered on Saturday for the sixth consecutive night to pray a rosary for the Pope’s health. Unlike the previous days, the rain displaced this “marathon” of prayer of the Plaza de San Pedro inside the homonymous monumental basilica.
“We pray to heal, because Pope Francis is very important for us, because of his humility, for his diversity (…) he inspires us a lot, he guides us,” Paolo, a Venetian of visiting in Rome with his wife Federica and his daughter Maria Chiara, told us.
“Thank you all!” The Pontiff replied in his angelus message: “I also pray for you. And I pray especially for peace. From here the war seems even more absurd. We pray for the tormented Ukraine, by Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, Kivu “