Pope Francis no longer in ‘immediate danger’ after continued improvement

In his Angelus address published on Sunday, Francis renewed his thanks for his care and prayers for his recovery in a reflection on the ‘miracle of tenderness’.

The Pope’s doctors said he was no longer in immediate danger of death on Monday. An evening statement from the Holy See Press Office said he had remained stable and recent improvements had been “further consolidated” since they were first reported on Saturday.

The medical bulletin from the Gemelli Hospital on 8 March said five days in a stable clinical condition since his last respiratory crisis on 3 March evidenced “a good response to treatment” and “a gradual, slight improvement”. However, his doctors maintained critical care “in order to record these initial improvements over the coming days”.

Monday’s statement said blood tests, clinical observations and the Pope’s good response to drug therapy confirmed the earlier findings. It added, however, that due to “the complexity of the medical picture and the severe infection on his hospitalisation”, he would need to remain in hospital for an unspecified period of time.

Since suffering two episodes of “acute respiratory deficiency” last Monday, Pope Francis has undergone non-invasive mechanical ventilation – which typically uses an oxygen mask – overnight, and received oxygen via nasal canula during the day. 

On Thursday, though his doctors said he remained in a critical condition, the Vatican said it would not publish a detailed medical report on Friday due to “the stability of the clinical picture” over previous days.

The Pope was able to work at various points last week and on Sunday received the Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the sostituto Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra. Again, there was no medical bulletin that evening due to the stability of his condition.

In his Angelus address published at noon on Sunday, Francis renewed his thanks for his care and prayers for his recovery in a reflection on the “miracle of tenderness”.

He said he had experienced “the thoughtfulness of service and the tenderness of care, in particular from the doctors and healthcare workers, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart”. He thought “of the many people who in various ways are close to the sick, and who are for them a sign of the Lord’s presence … bringing a little light into the night of pain”.

Pope says ‘thank you’ for prayers in recorded message

The caress of mercy

Earlier that day, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ, had celebrated the Mass for the Jubilee for volunteers, whom Francis praised for embodying this “tenderness”. 

“In our societies, too enslaved to market logic, where everything risks being subject to the criterion of interest and the quest for profit, volunteering is prophecy and a sign of hope, because it bears witness to the primacy of gratuitousness, solidarity and service to those most in need,” he said, echoing sentiments expressed in his homily for the Mass delivered by Cardinal Czerny on his behalf.

“On the streets and in homes, in the company of the sick, the suffering and the imprisoned, with the young and the elderly, your generosity and commitment offer hope to our entire society,” he told the congregation. “In the deserts of poverty and loneliness, all those small gestures are helping to make a new humanity blossom in the garden that is God’s dream, always and everywhere, for all of us.”

The Angelus address also repeated Francis’ thanks to “all those who are showing their closeness to me in prayer”, which he had last expressed in a recorded message broadcast in St Peter’s Square during the nightly Rosary for his recovery led by cardinals resident in Rome.

On Monday, the prayer service was moved to the Paul VI Hall to coincide with the Roman Curia’s spiritual exercises – the Lenten retreat for Vatican officials – but broadcast on screens for pilgrims in the square. 

Pope Francis joined the exercises by video link when they began on Sunday, and did so again the next day. Fr Roberto Pasolini OFM Cap, who was appointed preacher to the papal household in November and leads the exercises, said they were in “spiritual communion” with him.

“The absence of the Pope will not be a complete absence, first of all because we will gather in prayer for him with greater intensity,” he told Vatican News. “And then, because his absence itself will offer a word for us.”

John Paul II stayed in the Gemelli hospital so often that he dubbed it his Vatican III

View from Rome

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