Pope Francis’ condition continues to improve day by day, as evidenced by his few appearances this week, and he needs less oxygen, Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, told journalists at a briefing just before midday on Friday, April 11.
The pope has shown “improvements” in breathing, mobility and in his voice, and his blood tests are stable, Mr. Bruni reported. He does not need supplemental oxygen for extended periods and he uses high-flow oxygen only when needed and for therapeutic purposes.
Mr. Bruni said the pope is in “good humor” and happy to get out of his suite at the Casa Santa Marta and surprise people, as we saw yesterday, April 10, when the pope appeared in St. Peter’s Basilica, and last Sunday, April 6, at the end of the Jubilee Mass for the Sick and for Health Care Workers.
During his brief, informal visit to the basilica yesterday, Francis spoke with a young boy and met a couple with a baby, while pilgrims looked on in amazement and took photos and videos. He went to see some works of restoration in the basilica and met two of the workers at the site, then prayed at the tomb of St. Pius X, who was pope from 1903-1914.
The 88-year-old pope, pushed in a wheelchair by his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, and using a nasal tube to deliver supplemental oxygen, entered the basilica just before 1 p.m. on April 10. Mr. Bruni said April 11 that the pope had asked his assistants to take him to the basilica to pray.
"He was happy to pray in the basilica and to encounter people," Mr. Bruni said.
Tourists, pilgrims and even priests who minister in the basilica were taken by surprise.
"So much emotion," Monsignor Valerio Di Palma, one of the canons of the basilica, told Vatican News. "My vision blurred with tears, and I couldn't even take a picture."
Francis stunned many by his simple appearance: dressed not in his white papal cassock, but instead wearing his black trousers (as he always does under his cassock), a white sweater and a poncho. He often removes his cassock on the plane during foreign trips and, of course, in his private apartment.
This is the 20th day of the “at least two-month” convalescence period that the pope’s doctors prescribed for him when they discharged him from hospital on March 23. It is no secret, however, that the 88-year old Argentine pope is an “impatient patient,” even if he tries to obey his doctors. He is seeking to return, step by step, to normal, active life, although he is still in a frail physical condition and has not yet recovered his strength after 38 days in the Gemelli Hospital. Various sources who have met him during his convalescence told America that he is always very alert, quick to notice things, and in good humor.
Pope Francis is slowly but surely recovering his voice, though it is still weak, the sources said. He is able to engage in brief conversations with visitors, as he did with Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Wednesday afternoon, April 9, when he joyfully received them in his private apartment on the 20th anniversary of their wedding. In a photo of the encounter, he was not wearing nasal tubes. America learned that he also received two other visitors on that same day, a senior Vatican official and a foreign cardinal. Mr. Bruni told journalists today the pope is happy to receive people.
It seems Pope Francis has returned to his former practice of receiving senior Vatican officials and heads of dicasteries on certain days of the week or month. Already this past week, Mr. Bruni said, the pope received the four top officials of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state; Archbishops Edgar Peña Parra, the substitute (sostituto) for general affairs (chief of staff); Paul Gallagher, secretary for relations with international organizations and states (the Vatican’s foreign minister); and Luciano Russo, secretary for the pontifical diplomatic representations worldwide. All the meetings are being held in the pope’s private apartment on the second floor of Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he resides.
Asked whether the pope would receive U.S. Vice President JD Vance during his upcoming visit to Rome, Mr. Bruni said he had no information on this, though Vatican sources told America the possibility has been explored. Mr. Bruni said the press office would give information on visiting delegations for the Easter ceremonies in due course.
America has learned that the pope phones people for brief exchanges, including the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, the Argentine pastor of Holy Family Parish in Gaza City, to be updated on the dramatic situation there. One reason Francis may have prayed at the tomb of Pius X yesterday is that, as Francis wrote in the preface to a book published last year, Pius X frequently expressed his closeness to “the little ones, the poor, the needy, earthquake victims, the disadvantaged, and those suffering from natural disasters.” He recalled that Pius X “wept at the onset of the [First] World War” and pleaded “with the powerful to lay down their arms,” adding, “How close I feel to him in this tragic moment of the modern world.”
Mr. Bruni made no predictions as regards the pope’s participation in the Holy Week ceremonies, as much will depend on the weather and the pope’s health. He said Francis has delegated the Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the deputy dean of the College of Cardinals, to preside at the Palm Sunday ceremonies, just as he had done in 2023 after a three-day stay at the Gemelli Hospital for an infectious bronchitis. Mr. Bruni said he plans to give one briefing during Holy Week next week on Tuesday or Wednesday, April 15 or 16.
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This report uses material from Catholic News Service.
