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.
