Pope Francis He developed a bilateral pneumonia, the Vatican said on Tuesday after the new tests showed further complication in a state of 88-year-old Pope.
The Vatican said that Francis’s respiratory infection also includes asthmatic bronchitis, which required the use of cortisone antibiotic treatment. “Laboratory tests, an X -ray of the chest and the clinical condition of the Holy Father continue to represent a complex picture,” Vatican said.
Nevertheless, the Pope is in a good mood and is grateful for his recovery prayers, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni in a late update.
The Vatican on Tuesday canceled the papal audience over the weekend and delegated others to cover Pope Francis.
While other Vatican surgery took place as normal, the dismissals dimmed the upcoming events of the great Holy Year of the Vatican, a celebration of Catholicism that was intended to encourage pilgrims to come to Rome to participate in special jubilee activities. It is expected that about 30 million people will be attracted to Rome, the Holy Year is full of special papal audiences and masses during 2025, some of which have been called into question with respect to Francis’ disease.
Francis was admitted to the Gemelli Roman Hospital on Friday at a “fair” condition after the week of the Bronhitis Fight Worse. On Monday, medical staff found that he was suffering from the infection of the polymycrobial respiratory tract, which means that the mixture of viruses, bacteria and possibly other organisms colonized its respiratory tract.
The Vatican did not indicate how long he could remain hospitalized, just saying that the treatment of such a “complex clinical picture”, which had already required two changes in his drug regime, demanded a “appropriate” stay.
“The Pope is at risk of pneumonia due to this polymycrobial bronchitis,” said Dr. Carmelo D’A asero, an infectious disease and a geriatric disease expert in Rome. “We’ll see the effect of this new therapy in four to five days.”
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D’Sero, who is not involved in Francis’ care, noted that his lack of fever is not necessarily a positive thing, given the seriousness of his infection.
“High fever is a sign of immune response to pathogen,” he said. “Having a low fever and having a serious bronchial infection … A sign of a reduced immune response and it makes us worry a little more, say. Maybe he had a fever, it would be better.”
Francis once again had a quiet night, ate breakfast and read the newspaper on Tuesday morning, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. Later, a more detailed medical update was expected.
Pope Francis begins the Holy Year with a Mass on Christmas Eve in the Vatican
On Monday, Francis continued to do a job and invited Gaza City to the parish of Gaza City daily to apply for the Catholic community there. In the sign that the second Vatican job was Tuesday as usual, Vatican no. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, continued his sensitive visit to Burkina Faso and another top Vatican Cardinal, Cardinal Michael Czerny, prepared for a five -day visit to Lebanon on Wednesday.
But another job had to cancel. There will be no weekly general audience on Wednesday, and it is not clear whether Francis will miss the blessing on Sunday noon for the second week in a row.
This weekend of the Holy Year was dedicated to deacons, a ministry who is a necessary step for men preparing to become priests. Francis had a disabled audience on Saturday and needed to ordain deacons during the Mass on Sunday. The Vatican announced on Tuesday that his audience had been canceled and that the archbishop who would organize the anniversary would celebrate the Mass in the Pope’s place. It is a similar arrangement that the Vatican announced last weekend when artists in the city had to agree on the abolished papal audience and the Cardinal, who presided over their special Mass.
The next jubilee events in the calendar that would usually include the Pope are weekend from March 8 to March 9 dedicated to volunteers.
Francis, as a young man, was removed by a part of a lung after a pulmonary infection and is subject to the winter of bronchitis. In the past, he admitted that he was a patient who was not in line and even his close Vatican assistants said he had been pushing too far even after his bronchitis was diagnosed.
He refused to give up his hectic schedule and neglected the medical advice to stay indoors during Rome’s cold winter, insisting that we sit through an external jubilee mass for armed forces on February 9, although he had problems with breathing.
Francis’ entrance to the hospital has already put him aside for longer than hospitalization in 2023 for pneumonia.
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