Rome (AP) – The Vatican continued on Saturday with the celebration of the Holy Year without Pope Francis, who battle against pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection that, according to doctors, remains unpredictable and will keep him hospitalized at least one more week.
The Argentine pontiff slept well during the night, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, in a brief part on Saturday.
Doctors have warned that the main threat facing the Pope, 88, would be the appearance of sepsis, a serious blood infection that can occur as a complication of pneumonia. But until Friday, there was no evidence of sepsis, and Francisco responded to the various medications he is taking, his medical team reported in his first detailed update about his status.
“It is not out of danger,” said his personal doctor, Luigi Carbone. “Like all weak patients, I say they are always on a golden balance: in other words, very little is needed to lose your balance.”
Francisco, who suffers from a chronic pulmonary disease, was admitted to the Gemelli Hospital on February 14 after the worsening of bronchitis that was diagnosed a week earlier.
The doctors first detected a complex viral, bacterial and fungal respiratory infection, and then the appearance of pneumonia in both lungs. They prescribed “absolute rest” and a combination of cortisone and antibiotics, together with supplementary oxygen when you need it.
Carbone, who organized his attention in the Vatican with his personal nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, acknowledged that the Pope had insisted on staying in the Holy See to work, even after getting sick, “due to institutional and private commitments.” Before his hospitalization, he was treated by a cardiologist and an infectious disease specialist, in addition to his personal medical team.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, head of Medicine and Surgery at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, said that the greatest threat that Francisco faces is that some of the germs found in his respiratory system go to the bloodstream and cause a sepsis. Sepsis can cause organic insufficiency and death.
“The sepsis, with its respiratory problems and its age, would be really difficult to overcome,” Alfieri said at a press conference at the Hospital on Friday.
“The English say ‘touches wood’, we say ‘touches iron’. May each one touch what they want, ”he said as he touched the microphone. “But this is the real risk in these cases: that these germs go to the bloodstream.”
“He knows he is in danger,” added Alfieri. “And he told us to transmit it.”
Meanwhile, the deacons gathered in the Vatican for their weekend within the jubilee agenda. Francisco ill at the beginning of the Vatican Holy Year, a celebration of the Catholicity that occurs every 25 years. This weekend, the Argentine religious had to dedicate it to the deacons, a ministry of the Church that precedes the ordination to the priesthood.
Instead, the organizer of the Holy Year will officiate Sunday’s Mass, said the Vatican. And for the second consecutive weekend, Francisco is expected to skip his traditional blessing from Sunday at noon, which he could have done from the hospital if the Pope was in a position to do so.
“Although it is not (physically) here, we know it is here,” said Luis Arnaldo Lopez Quirindongo, a deacon of Puerto Rico who was in the Vatican on Saturday for celebrations for the jubilee. “It is recovering, but it is in our hearts and is accompanying us because our prayers and those go together.”
Beyond that, doctors advanced that their recovery will take time and will have to continue living with their chronic respiratory problems when they return to the Vatican.
“You have to overcome this infection and we all hope you will achieve it,” said Alfieri. “But the reality is that all possibilities are open.”
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The religious coverage of The Associated Press receives support through a collaboration with The Conversation Us, with funds from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for the content.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
This article was published by Nicole Winfield on 2025-02-22 07:22:00
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