by A stable Pope Francis had a visit from the State Secretary of Vatican on Sunday while continuing his recovery of double pneumonia, the Vatican said, but again skipped his weekly afternoon blessing to prevent even a short public appearance from the hospital.
Instead, the Vatican spread a message from the pope in which he thanked his doctors for their care and benefactors for their prayers, and again prayed for peace in Ukraine and elsewhere.
“From here, war seems even more absurd,” Francis said in the message, which he has prepared of the Gemelli hospital in recent days, the Vatican said. Francis said he lived his hospitalization as an experience of deep solidarity with people who are sick and suffer everywhere,
“In my heart I feel the ‘blessing’ that is hidden in vulnerability, because it is exactly at these moments that we learn even more to trust the Lord,” Francis said in the text. “At the same time I thank God for giving me the chance to share the condition of so many sick and suffering people in body and mind.”
Signs indicate a recovery
It marked the third weekend in a row that Francis has canceled the Sunday appointment that the Angelus prayer delivered personally. He could have done this from his 10th floor Hospital suite in the Gemelli Hospital if he was good enough.
But many signs indicated that he was recovering and improved. “The night was quiet, the Pope still rests,” said the Vatican in his Sunday update.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin and his staff chef, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, called on the Pope on Sunday morning, their second visit since the hospital admission of Francis, according to the spokesperson for Vatican, Matteo Bruni. There were no details about what was discussed, but the mere visit suggested that the condition of Francis stabilized.
“The night was quiet, the Pope still rests,” said the Vatican in his Sunday early update.
He had no fever or signs of raised white blood cells, which would indicate that his body is still against infection.
Doctors on Saturday reported that Francis was in a stable state, without being critical. Their cheerful assessment came one day after a breathing crisis that led to him not being submitted invasive mechanical ventilation.
But the 88-year-old Pope had a “good reaction” in his gas exchange levels, even during the “long periods”, he was from the Ventilatormasker on Saturday and only used high-flow additional oxygen, said the Vatican.
The fact that Francis was able to use long -term oxygen with high current, without any significant effect on the oxygen levels in his blood, was a sign that his respiratory function was improving.
However, doctors were careful and kept his prognosis as guarded, which means that he was not in danger. He was eating and drinking and continued his breathing physiotherapy and spent 20 minutes in his private chapel in the hall on Saturday, the Vatican said.
The pope, who had removed part of one lung as a young man, has lung disease and was recorded on February 14 on 2 February after an attack by bronchitis deteriorated and turned into a complex pneumonia in both lungs.
Prayers continued to flow in
Francis’s hospitalization has come because the Vatican marks its holy year and attracts pilgrims from everywhere to Rome. They walk through the holy door in St. Peter’s Basilica and also make pilgrimages to the Hilltop Umbrian city of Assisi, to pray in the house of the namesake of Francis, St. Franciscus.
“Every day we pray for the Pope,” said the Reverend Jacinto Bento, a priest who visits Assisi on Saturday with a group of 30 anniversary pelgrims from the Azores Islands. “We are very sad for his situation.”
In a strange coincidence, Francis was supposed to have chaired Saturday about a holy annual audience in the auditorium of the Vatican for the staff of the Gemelli Hospital and other health workers. They came as planned and completed the pilgrimage, while Francis continued his recovery in the hospital.
“We thought we could meet him this morning in Paul VI Hall for the Jubilee catechesis, but he surprised us by coming to us,” said Monsignor Claudio Giuliodori, spiritual guide of the Catholic University of the Holy Heart, of which Gemelli is part.
Giovanni Frisullo, a gemelli neurologist, said that the atmosphere in Gemelli was one of tension and prayer. “There is a situation of waiting but also of hope,” he said.
