Pope ‘breathing on his own’ despite pneumonia, had a ‘peaceful night’

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis’ heart is holding up very well

despite his pneumonia

, a Vatican source said on Feb 19, amid growing concerns over the 88-year-old’s condition.

The Pope was

admitted to hospital with bronchitis

last week after suffering breathing difficulties, but has since developed pneumonia in both of his lungs.

“The Pope spent a peaceful night, woke up and had breakfast,” the Vatican said after Pope Francis’ fifth night at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

“The Pope is breathing on his own. His heart is holding up very well,” a source in the Vatican said.

Pope Francis has been speaking to friends by telephone, has been out of bed and sitting in a chair, and working on and off, the source said.

On Feb 18, the Vatican reported that Pope Francis was in “good spirits”, adding that he had been alternating resting and reading in the suite reserved for popes on the 10th floor of the hospital.

But in a late evening medical bulletin, it warned that “the laboratory tests, chest X-ray and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture”.

It said on Feb 18 a “polymicrobial infection”, which has come on top of “bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis” and required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy, makes therapeutic treatment more complex.

“The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon… demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” it said.

The pontiff had part of his right lung cut away when he was 21 after he developed pleurisy that almost killed him.

The Vatican has already

cancelled a papal audience on Feb 22

and said he would not attend a mass on Feb 23, although it has yet to announce plans for his weekly Angelus prayer, held on a Sunday.

‘Delicate’ condition

Candles, some with pictures of the Pope on them, have been set at the bottom of a statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli Hospital, where pilgrims have been coming to pray.

“I came to say a prayer for the Pope so that he may recover soon. I send him my best wishes,” Ms Jacqueline Troncoso, a Bolivian resident in Rome, said.

The Vatican published drawings done by children in the hospital for Pope Francis, as well as letters from parents asking him to pray for their sick offspring.

Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to hospital after struggling for several days to read his texts in public.

Jesuit theologian Antonio Spadaro, who is close to Pope Francis, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily the Pope could be in hospital for two to three weeks.

“It is clear that the situation is delicate, but I have not perceived any form of alarmism,” he said.

The Pope “has an extraordinary vital energy”, he said. “He is not a person who lets himself go. He is not a resigned man, and that is a very positive element. We have seen that in the past.”

The pneumonia is the latest of a series of health issues for the Jesuit, who has undergone hernia and colon surgery since 2021 and uses a wheelchair due to pain in his knee.

The Pope has left open the option of resigning if he becomes unable to carry out his duties.

But in a memoir in 2024, he said it was just a “distant possibility” that would be justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”. AFP