A woman lays a rosary near candles adorned with pictures of Pope Francis outside the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic where Pope Francis is battling pneumonia, in Rome, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025
| Photo Credit: AP
Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday (February 22, 2025) after he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen, the Vatican said.
The 88-year-old Francis, who has been hospitalised for a week with a complex lung infection, also received blood transfusions after tests showed a condition associated with anemia, the Vatican said in a late update.
“The Holy Father continues to be alert and spent the day in an armchair although in more pain than yesterday. At the moment the prognosis is reserved,” the statement said.
Earlier, doctors said that Pope Francis was battling pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection that doctors say remains touch-and-go and will keep him hospitalised for at least another week.
The Vatican carried on with its Holy Year celebrations without the pope on Saturday (February 22, 2025).
In a brief earlier update on Saturday (February 22, 2025), Pope Francis slept well overnight.
But doctors have warned that the main threat facing Pope Francis would be the onset of sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia. As of Friday (February 21, 2025), there was no evidence of any sepsis, and Pope Francis was responding to the various drugs he is taking, the pope’s medical team said in their first in-depth update on the pope’s condition.
“He is not out of danger,” said his personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone. “So like all fragile patients I say they are always on the golden scale: In other words, it takes very little to become unbalanced.”
Pope Francis, who has chronic lung disease, was admitted to Gemelli Hospital on February 14 after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened.
Doctors first diagnosed the complex viral, bacterial and fungal respiratory tract infection and then the onset of pneumonia in both lungs. They prescribed “absolute rest” and a combination of cortisone and antibiotics, along with supplemental oxygen when he needs it.
Dr. Carbone, who along with Pope Francis’ personal nurse Massimiliano Strappetti organised care for him at the Vatican, acknowledged he had insisted on staying at the Vatican to work, even after he was sick, “because of institutional and private commitments.”
He was cared for by a cardiologist and infectious specialist in addition to his personal medical team before being hospitalised.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of medicine and surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, said the biggest threat facing Pope Francis was that some of the germs that are currently located in his respiratory system pass into the bloodstream, causing sepsis. Sepsis can lead to organ failure and death.
“Sepsis, with his respiratory problems and his age, would be really difficult to get out of,” Dr. Alfieri told a news conference Friday (February 21, 2025) at Gemelli. “The English say knock on wood,’ we say touch iron.’ Everyone touch what they want,” he said as he tapped the microphone. “But this is the real risk in these cases: that these germs pass to the bloodstream.”
“He knows he’s in danger,” Mr. Alfieri added. “And he told us to relay that.”
Deacons, meanwhile, were gathering at the Vatican for their special Jubilee weekend. Pope Francis got sick at the start of the Vatican’s Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration of Catholicism. This weekend, Pope Francis was supposed to have celebrated deacons, a ministry in the church that precedes ordination to the priesthood.
In his place, the Holy Year organiser will celebrate Sunday’s (February 23, 2025) Mass, the Vatican said. And for the second weekend in a row, Pope Francis was expected to skip his traditional Sunday (February 23, 2025) noon blessing, which he could have delivered from Gemelli if he were up to it.
“Look, even though he’s not (physically) here, we know he’s here,” said Luis Arnaldo Lopez Quirindongo, a deacon from Ponce, Puerto Rico who was at the Vatican on Saturday (February 22, 2025) for the Jubilee celebration. “He’s recovering, but he’s in our hearts and is accompanying us because our prayers and his go together.”
Beyond that, doctors have said Pope Francis’ recovery will take time and that regardless he will still have to live with his chronic respiratory problems back at the Vatican.
“He has to get over this infection and we all hope he gets over it,” said Dr. Alfieri. “But the fact is, all doors are open.”
Published – February 23, 2025 12:17 am IST
