Pope Francis is expected to spend several days in hospital as he receives treatment for a respiratory infection.
A spokesman for the Holy See said that the 86-year-old Pope had recently complained of breathing difficulties and, on the afternoon of 29 March, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for tests.
These tests, the spokesman said, showed he had an infection, although Covid-19 has been excluded.
Earlier in the day, Francis had led the Wednesday general audience but, after experiencing some pain, an ambulance was called, and he was taken to the coronary unit of the hospital.
The Vatican had initially said the hospital check-ups were scheduled, although the Pope reportedly cancelled an interview with an Italian journalist due to take place after the audience. All his meetings have been cancelled until Saturday.
In an interview with the Associated Press in January, the Pope said he is generally in good health for someone his age. However, in July 2021 he had an operation to remove part of his large intestine.
Francis has been open about his medical history. In 2019 he was interviewed by Nelson Castro, an Argentinian doctor-journalist friend, for a book about the health of popes. He spoke about a lung operation he underwent at age 21, from which he fully recovered, the physiotherapy he needs for his sciatica and his slightly rocking gait caused by a flat foot.
Francis has also talked about receiving psychoanalysis once a week for six months when he was 42 and that “helped me a lot at a moment in my life…when I needed to clarify things”.
For nearly a year, the Pope has been using a wheelchair due to pain in his knee, although he has declined to have surgery. Instead, he has received help from the head doctor at the Spanish football team Atlético de Madrid and has seen some improvements recently.
Following his operation in 2021, rumours swirled in the Vatican, particularly among circles opposed to the Francis papacy, that the Pope had cancer. Francis dismissed the cancer claims as “court gossip”, joking that the doctors “didn’t tell me about it”.
Soon after his election, the Pope signed a letter of resignation should a health issue or accident make it impossible for him to continue, but has said that the papacy is a role which should be for life.
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