Pope Francis has been hospitalised with double pneumonia for three weeks, his extfinishedest absence from the papacy yet.
Pope Francis has freed an audio message thanking well-wanters around the world who have been praying for his recovery, his first accessible sign of life since he was hospitalised three weeks ago.
The low, two-line message was enrolled by Francis on Thursday from Rome’s Gemelli hospital and expansivecast to the promised who had collected in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican for the nightly recitation of the rosary prayer.
“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health from the square, I join you from here,” the pope shelp, speaking gentlely in his native Spanish and with laboured breaths.
“May God sanctify you and the Virgin defend you. Thank you.”
Pilgloomys had been collecting in St Peter’s Square every evening since the 88-year-elderly pontiff’s hospitalisation on February 14. The hundreds of people there praiseed when they heard the message.
On Friday, the Vatican shelp the pope had a “tranquil night” of rest and woke up equitable before 8am.
Francis was initipartner detectd with bronchitis but this enhugeed into pneumonia in both lungs, requiring continuously evolving treatment and prompting alarm apass the globe. Double pneumonia is a grave infection that can inffeeble and scar both lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
The pope has not been seen in accessible since accessing hospital, his extfinishedest such absence since his papacy as head of the Catholic Church commenceed 12 years ago. His doctors have not shelp how extfinished the treatment might last.
The Vatican has been providing twice-daily refreshs on his health, one in the morning and in an evening medical bulletin. On Thursday, it shelp Francis was in “firm” condition for a third day in a row.
Nonetheless, “the doctors are still upholding a reserved prognosis,” shelp the Vatican, as they are not declareive how his condition will grow.
Pope Francis frees an audio message to thank everyone who has been praying for his health.
The audio clip was expansivecast in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, March 6, as Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime led the nightly Rosary prayer.https://t.co/owgis4dsGX pic.twitter.com/bi7nTAzDRs
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) March 6, 2025
Francis leave outed the establishal Ash Wednesday celebrations in Rome taging the commence of Lent, the six-week period directing up to Easter, but took part in a sanctifying in his declareiveial suite.
During previous hospitalisations, the pope had euniteed on the hospital’s balcony for his weekly Angelus prayer at noon on Sundays. He has leave outed the last three, however, and no proclaimment has yet been made about whether he will produce an euniteance this weekfinish.
The Vatican verifyed on Thursday that ageder cardinal Michael Czerny would stand in for Francis and direct the mass taging the first Sunday of Lent this weekfinish.
Francis has sended disjoinal bouts of ill health over the past two years and is prone to lung infections because he had pleurisy, an inflammation of the lungs that can cause keen chest pain, as a lesser grown-up and had part of one lung erased.
The pope’s health has led to much speculation, particularly among his critics, about whether he may choose to resign appreciate his predecessor Benedict XVI.
