Pope Francis remained in critical condition Monday but showed a slight improvement in laboratory tests and resumed some work activities, including calling a parish in Gaza City that he has kept in touch with since the war there began, the Vatican said.
The Vatican’s evening bulletin was more upbeat than in recent days, as the 88-year-old Francis battles pneumonia in both lungs. It said he hadn’t had any more respiratory crises since Saturday and that the supplemental oxygen that he was using continued but with a slightly reduced oxygen flow and concentrations. The slight kidney insufficiency detected on Sunday was not causing alarm at the moment, doctors said, while saying his prognosis remained guarded.
He received the Eucharist in the morning and resumed working in the afternoon.
“In the evening he called the parish priest of the Gaza parish to express his fatherly closeness,” the statement said.
For over a year, Francis has checked in daily via video call with the Argentine priest, the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, who leads the Catholic community at the church, which during Israel’s war had served as a shelter for Palestinians. Romanelli had reported hearing from Francis soon after he was hospitalized, but not since. He had sent Francis a video, and the pope called to thank him, the Vatican said.
Earlier Monday, the Vatican had announced the start of nighttime prayers for the pope’s health in St. Peter’s Square, and invited Romans and others to join in, as he battles a complex lung infection and complications. The Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, planned to lead the first prayer on Monday evening.
Francis, who has double pneumonia and the early stages of kidney insufficiency, was awake and in good spirits Monday. He was not in pain and was not receiving artificial nutrition, the Vatican said.
“The night passed well, the pope slept and is resting,” it said.
At the Gemelli hospital, where Francis has been since Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened, Bishop Claudio Giuliodori presided over an emotional, standing-room-only Mass in the chapel named for John Paul. Some of the estimated 200 people who attended were in white doctor’s coats or green surgical scrubs; some knelt in prayer.
“We are very sorry. Pope Francis is a good pope, let’s hope that he makes it. Let us hope,” said a choked-up Filomena Ferraro, who was visiting a relative at Gemelli on Monday. “We are joining him with our prayers but what else can we do?”
ALBERTO PIZZOLI / AFP via Getty Images
Doctors have said Francis’ condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. They’ve warned that the main threat facing Francis is sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.
To date, there’s been no reference to any onset of sepsis in the medical updates provided by the Vatican.
This hospitalization now ties Francis’ longest as pope. He spent 10 days at Gemelli hospital in 2021 after he had 13 inches of his colon removed.
In New York on Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan acknowledged what church leaders in Rome weren’t saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father.”
“As our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death,” Dolan said in his homily from the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, though he later told reporters he hoped and prayed that Francis would “bounce back.”
Francis’ condition has revived speculation about what might happen if he becomes unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, and whether he might resign.