Hospitalized with respiratory infection, pope improving, Vatican says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' condition improved during his first 24 hours in Rome's Gemelli hospital with tests confirming he has a respiratory tract infection and his doctors ordering complete rest, the Vatican said.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told reporters the morning of Feb. 15 that the 88-year-old pope had slept well his first night in the hospital, he had breakfast and read some newspapers in the morning.

How long the pope will remain at Gemelli depends on how he reacts to treatment, he said.
The official bulletin released by the Vatican late Feb. 15 confirmed that the pope no longer had a fever.

After more tests, the bulletin said, his "therapy was slightly modified based on further microbiological findings. Today's laboratory tests found improvement in some values."

Pope Francis received the Eucharist in the morning and spent the day alternating "rest with prayer and reading," it said.

"To facilitate his recovery, the medical staff prescribed absolute rest," the Vatican said. In accordance with the doctor's orders, the pope will not lead the Angelus prayer Feb. 16 from his hospital room but will send the text he had prepared for publication.

The Vatican also said Pope Francis thanked people for their messages of concern and affection and asked people to continue praying for him.

The pope was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection and mild fever around midday Feb. 14 after more than a week with bronchitis and obvious difficulty breathing.

The 88-year-old Pope Francis was in "fair" condition by the evening and was receiving drug therapy, the Vatican press office said.

The statement added that pope was admitted to the hospital "as a result of the exacerbation of bronchitis in recent days."

Italian newspapers and news agencies reported that before agreeing to go to the hospital, the pope had been receiving treatment intravenously at home without success. The medication, the media reported, was cortisone-based, which accounted for the noticeable puffiness in the pope's face over the previous week.

The Vatican press office had announced the morning of Feb. 14 that the pope, after holding his regularly scheduled morning meetings, would be "admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue, in a hospital setting, treatment for bronchitis that is still ongoing."

Before leaving the Vatican for the hospital, the pope held private meetings with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and with Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN, and held a group meeting with members of the Gaudium et Spes Foundation.

Christopher Lamb, the CNN Vatican correspondent, was present at the beginning of the pope's meeting with Thompson and said that "the pope was mentally alert but struggling to speak for extended periods due to breathing difficulties," CNN reported.

The pope was expected to stay in the hospital several days.

In a second statement Feb. 14, the Vatican press office announced the cancellation of several papal events. The Jubilee general audience with Pope Francis scheduled for Feb. 15 would not take place; and Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, will celebrate the Mass Pope Francis was scheduled to preside over in St. Peter's Basilica Feb. 16 with pilgrims attending the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture. The pope's planned visit to Cinecittà, the Rome film studio, to meet actors and other artists Feb. 17 also was canceled.

The pope, who underwent surgery in 1957 to remove part of one of his lungs after suffering a severe respiratory infection, has been susceptible to colds and bouts of bronchitis.

Beginning with his weekly general audience Feb. 5, Pope Francis has had an aide read the bulk of his homilies and prepared speeches at public Masses and audiences.

"It is difficult for me to speak," he explained to visitors at the audience Feb. 5 before handing off his text.

At Mass Feb. 9 for the Jubilee of the Armed Services, Police and Security Personnel, he apologized, saying he was having "difficulty breathing."

At his general audience Feb. 12, he apologized for not delivering the main talk himself, saying it was "because I still can't with my bronchitis. I hope next time I can."

But on all those public occasions, he took the microphone to urge prayers for peace and to give his blessing.

Also, from Feb. 6 to the morning he entered the hospital, Pope Francis kept his schedule of meetings with individuals and small groups but held the meetings in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, his residence, rather than in the library or ornate halls of the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Francis has been an inpatient at the Gemelli hospital several times.

In March 2023, he was hospitalized for three days for what doctors said was a "respiratory infection." He tested negative for COVID-19.

He was back June 7, 2023, when he underwent a three-hour surgery to repair a hernia and spent nine days at the hospital, where St. John Paul II had been hospitalized multiple times. The procedure on Pope Francis, under general anesthesia, was performed using a surgical mesh to strengthen the repair and prevent the recurrence of a hernia. Surgeons also removed several adhesions or bands of scar tissue that his doctors said had formed after previous surgeries decades ago.

Prior to that, the pope had spent seven days in the hospital in July 2021 after undergoing colon surgery to treat diverticulitis, an inflammation of bulges in the intestine. Pope Francis repeatedly denied that doctors had found cancer during the operation.