Feb. 25, 3:30 p.m. EST: Pope Francis’ situation remains ‘critical but stationary’
Pope Francis remains in “critical but stationary” condition, according to the medical report released by the Vatican this evening, Feb. 25. The report does not mention any improvement since yesterday’s medical update, which noted that “some laboratory tests [had] improved.”
It said, however, that there have not been any more “acute respiratory episodes” since Francis suffered an asthmatic respiratory crisis last Saturday morning, and the pope’s “hemodynamic [blood] parameters continue to be stable.”
The report said the doctors carried out “a scheduled control CT scan for radiological monitoring of bilateral pneumonia” this evening, but they did not release the results of that scan. A Vatican source said this is the third CT scan that the pope has had: the first on entry to the hospital, the second one week ago that detected bilateral pneumonia, and now this one, the results of which need careful examination and will be made known tomorrow.
The doctors again concluded their report with caution by saying, “The prognosis remains reserved.” In other words, the pope is still in danger.
[A prayer for Pope Francis during his grave illness]
“The situation is delicate,” Dr. Anna Lisa Bilotta, who works at Rome’s Salvator Mundi International Hospital and is not treating the pope, told America. She noted that, unlike yesterday, the doctors today “do not speak of improvements,” which suggests that the 88-year-old pope “is still in a serious situation.” She also noted that they “did not give the results of the CT scan” and said that “this suggests that the infection is still in his lungs, and they do not know how it will evolve because he is a patient with many pathologies simultaneously and it takes a lot of time for the therapies to take effect.” For these reasons, she concluded that the pope’s condition “remains critical but stable; it has not gotten worse, but neither is there an improvement.”
The Vatican reported that the pope received the Eucharist this morning, and afterward “resumed work.”
Feb. 25, 9:30 a.m. EST: Pope Francis visited by two top Vatican officials in sign of improving health
Pope Francis received on Monday the two most senior officials from the Holy See’s Secretariat of State: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, often referred to as the chief of staff, the Vatican said in a press communique at noon today.
This would seem to indicate that Francis is slowly recovering from double pneumonia; until then, his doctors had prescribed “complete rest” for him and had only allowed one person to visit him: the Italian prime minister, Georgia Meloni. Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the leader of the pope’s medical team, told the press last Friday that her visit was “an exception.” That they allowed the two senior Vatican officials to meet him yesterday, for work-related reasons, indicates that his situation has improved, although in last evening’s bulletin the doctors said that, “as a precautionary measure,” they would still maintain a “reserved prognosis,” which means he is not yet out of danger.
During the Feb. 24 audience with the cardinal and archbishop in his suite on the 10th floor of Gemelli Hospital, the Vatican said, Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints to promulgate several decrees. Among them was a decree for the beatification of an American Catholic priest, Emil Joseph Kapaun (1916-51), who was born on a farm in Kansas and served as a United States Army chaplain during World War II and then in Korea, where he was captured and later died in a prisoner of war camp in North Korea.
Among other acts relating to the causes of the saints, Francis also approved the decrees for the canonization of two Catholic laymen, Venezuelan Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros (1864-1919) and Italian Blessed Bartolo Longo (1841-1926), who founded the shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary at Pompeii, and is often referred to as “a saint for the depressed and anxious.”
Finally, Pope Francis convoked a consistory for the approval of new decrees for canonizations, but the Vatican did not give a date for this, since the pope presides over it and it is not clear when he will be released from the hospital.
After meeting the pope yesterday, Cardinal Parolin led a recitation of the Rosary for the pope’s recovery at a 9 p.m. prayer service in St. Peter’s Square. The service was attended by 27 cardinals, many priests and religious and hundreds of laypeople, including pilgrims from the United States and other countries.
In a brief introduction, the cardinal recalled that “in the Acts of the Apostles, it is written that the church prayed intensely while Peter was kept in prison.” He said: “For 2,000 years, the Christian people have prayed for the pope when he is in danger or ill. Even in these days, as Pope Francis has been hospitalized at Gemelli Hospital, an intense prayer has risen to the Lord from individual faithful and Christian communities worldwide.”
“From this evening,” the cardinal added, “we, too, want to unite publicly, here in his home, with the recitation of the Holy Rosary. We entrust him to the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we invoke under the title of Salus Infirmorum (Our Lady, Health of the Sick). May she, our loving Mother, support him in this time of illness and trial and help him recover soon.”
Pope Francis is now in his 12th day in the hospital. A Vatican source today told Italian news agency ANSA that he slept through last night “without interruption,” got up and has not had a breathing crisis since last Saturday morning. Moreover, he is not on sedatives.
The Vatican confirmed there will be another medical report this evening around 7 p.m., and later in the week, at a date yet to be decided, there may be another press briefing from his doctors.
