The sovereign pontiff is hospitalized for bronchitis.
Reassuring news. Pope Francis, hospitalized in Rome for bronchitis, is due out of hospital on Saturday and will attend Palm Sunday Mass the next day, the Vatican announced on Friday.
Thursday evening, “Pope Francis had dinner, eating pizza in the company of those who surround him in these days of hospitalization: doctors, nurses, assistants and personnel of the gendarmerie”, specified Matteo Bruni, director of the service Press of the Holy See.
The 86-year-old Argentinian Jesuit, whose state of health is “markedly improving” according to his doctors, “read some newspapers and went back to work” after a second night at the Gemelli polyclinic in Rome, where he is receiving antibiotic treatment .
After his return to the Vatican, the Pope should be present on Sunday for the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, said Matteo Bruni at midday. This ceremony marks the beginning of Holy Week preceding the celebrations of Easter, the main highlight of the year for Catholics.
Several health problems
Francis, who suffers from chronic health problems and uses a wheelchair due to knee pain, has been hospitalized since Wednesday in the private apartment reserved for popes on the 10th floor of the Gemelli University Hospital, where Pope John Paul II had stayed several times in his time.
After mentioning “scheduled exams”, the Vatican spokesman finally revealed on Wednesday that Francis suffered from a “respiratory infection” and had experienced difficulty breathing in recent days.
On Twitter, the pope said Thursday “touched by the many messages received in recent hours”. “I express my gratitude to everyone for their closeness and their prayers,” he wrote.
A possible waiver?
The bishop of Rome had already been hospitalized for ten days at the Gemelli hospital in July 2021 for a heavy colon operation. He admitted having kept “after-effects” of the anesthesia, which pushed him to rule out knee surgery so far.
The pain caused by this joint, which notably forced him to cancel several meetings in 2022 and to postpone a trip to Africa, is at the heart of conjecture on his possible renunciation.
The head of the Catholic Church has always left the door open to this possibility. His predecessor Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013, taking the world by surprise.
