Cheyenne Suarez

Ailing pope 'critical but stable', Vatican says

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>Pope Francis, who is in hospital with pneumonia in both lungs, is still in a critical condition but is stable and working from his sick bed, the Vatican said Tuesday.</p><p>Catholics across the globe have been praying for the 88-year-old amid hope he may be turning a corner on what doctors warn could be a long path to recovery.</p><p>&quot;The Holy Father&#x27;s clinical condition remains critical but stable,&quot; the Vatican said the evening of Francis&#x27;s 12th day in the papal suite of Rome&#x27;s Gemelli hospital.</p><p>&quot;There have been no acute respiratory episodes and hemodynamic parameters continue to be stable,&quot; it said in a statement, referring to measurements such as heart rate and blood pressure.</p><p>Francis, admitted on February 14 with breathing difficulties, suffered asthmatic respiratory attacks at the weekend that required high levels of oxygen and blood transfusions to combat anaemia.</p><p>On Tuesday, &quot;he underwent a scheduled follow-up CT scan in the evening for radiological monitoring of bilateral pneumonia&quot;, the Vatican said.</p><p>&quot;The prognosis remains reserved,&quot; it said.</p><p>Despite his critical condition, the leader of the world&#x27;s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics has striven to keep up with Church matters from his hospital suite on the Gemelli&#x27;s 10th floor, according to the Vatican.</p><p>&quot;In the morning, after receiving the Eucharist, he resumed work activities,&quot; the statement said.</p><div><br/></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-0" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DGgdFouNn8s/embed/captioned/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=932&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A116559%2C%22ls%22%3A116451.00000000001%2C%22le%22%3A116536%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="1236" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><p>- &#x27;Praying for you&#x27; -</p><div><br/></div><p>The Argentine pope worked Monday too, receiving the Vatican&#x27;s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.</p><p>Francis approved the canonisation of two Venezuelan and Italian laymen who died in the early 20th century, while authorising the first steps towards sainthood for three 19th-century priests.</p><p>He also called the parish priest of Gaza&#x27;s Catholic community, as he has routinely done since the war there broke out, the Vatican said.</p><p>This time, he was thanking him for a video the parish sent him.</p><p>&quot;The whole world is praying for you... and everyone wishes you good health,&quot; the priest said in the video, published on Vatican News.</p><p>Catholics left messages and candles outside the hospital, where a group of faithful held up a banner reading: &quot;Today, more than ever, we need you Francis&quot;.</p><p>Dozens of people attended special prayers for the pope at an Argentine church in Rome Tuesday evening, led by Italian Cardinal Baldassare Reina.</p><p>In the chapel of Our Lady of Lujan at the Santa Maria Addolorata church, faithful could leave messages for Francis in a notebook, which would then be sent to him.</p><p>&quot;Prayers are being sent from every part of the world... Let it become a choral prayer, (to) give Pope Francis health, strength, give him the ability to face this moment too, as he has always done&quot;, Reina said.</p><div><br/></div><p>- &#x27;Breath of fresh air&#x27; -</p><div><br/></div><p>In Buenos Aires, where the former Jorge Bergoglio served as archbishop before being made pope in 2013, hundreds of Argentines prayed for the pontiff.</p><p>Speaking in the plaza where Bergoglio used to rail against injustice and inequality, Archbishop Jorge Garcia Cuerva called Francis&#x27;s papacy &quot;a breath of oxygen for a world suffocated by violence, suffocated by selfishness, suffocated by exclusion&quot;.</p><p>&quot;Let our prayer be that breath of fresh air that reaches his lungs so that he can recover his health,&quot; he said.</p><p>Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, a former coordinator of the pope&#x27;s Council of Cardinals, told La Repubblica daily Tuesday he felt hopeful the pope would pull through.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s not yet time for him to go to heaven,&quot; Maradiaga said.</p><p>&quot;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,&quot; he told the paper.</p><div><br/></div><p>- Recovery time -</p><div><br/></div><p>Doctors have cautioned that any recovery will take time and that Francis will likely stay in hospital beyond this week.</p><p>The pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has increasingly suffered health complications in recent years.</p><p>He is prone to respiratory infections, is overweight and suffers knee and hip pain that has led to his reliance on a wheelchair.</p><p>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 newspaper La Stampa.</p><p>&quot;For an older person like Pope Francis, with all the added complications... you have to wait even longer for a complete recovery,&quot; Andreoni said.</p>

<p>Pope Francis, who is in hospital with pneumonia in both lungs, is still in a critical condition but is stable and working from his sick bed</p>

Pope Francis, who is in hospital with pneumonia in both lungs, is still in a critical condition but is stable and working from his sick bed