The Argentine pontiff was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 with breathing difficulties and bronchitis but his condition has subsequently worsened and faithful around the world have been praying for his recovery.
The Holy See issued a more hopeful statement Monday evening, saying that the pope’s “critical clinical conditions... demonstrate a slight improvement”.
But the pope remains “a fragile patient,“ as his doctor Luigi Carbone stated Friday, and his medical team have cautioned that it will take time for his drug treatments to show a positive effect.
Francis, who has a special papal suite on the 10th floor of the hospital, has continued to do some work, has moved from his bed to an armchair, and received the Eucharist in the morning.
Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga -- a former coordinator of the pope’s Council of Cardinals -- told La Repubblica daily he felt hopeful that the pope would pull through.
“He is someone who does not back down in the face of difficulty, does not get discouraged, does not freeze, and does not stop moving forward,“ he told the paper.
Well-wishers have left candles and photos outside the hospital, where a special prayer Monday was led by Gemelli’s chaplain.
Speaking in the plaza where Bergoglio used to rail against injustice and inequality, Archbishop Jorge Garcia Cuerva called Francis’s papacy “a breath of oxygen for a world suffocated by violence, suffocated by selfishness, suffocated by exclusion.”
Special prayers for Francis will be celebrated Tuesday evening at an Argentine church in Rome.
At the White House Monday, US President Donald Trump called the pope’s health “a very serious situation”.
In Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro said he had sent the pope a letter “expressing all our admiration,“ calling Francis “the ethical leader of humanity... loved by all religions”.
Doctors have cautioned that any recovery will take time and that Francis’s hospitalisation will likely extend beyond this week.
It takes a young person at least two weeks to get over double pneumonia, Massimo Andreoni, scientific director of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, told La Stampa daily.
“For an older person like Pope Francis, with all the added complications... you have to wait even longer for a complete recovery,“ Andreoni said.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Ailing pope resting amid slight improvement: Vatican )
Also on site :