Pope's chest X-ray confirms his improvement, doctors say

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' condition continues to be stable and a chest X-ray "confirmed the improvements recorded in the previous days," his doctors said, but without saying his double pneumonia had cleared up completely.

The 88-year-pope is still using high-flow oxygen through a nasal tube during the day and "noninvasive mechanical ventilation" with a mask overnight, said the medical bulletin published March 12 by the Vatican press office.

In their bulletin of March 10, the pope's doctors had said that the pope's continued stability and incremental improvements in his breathing and blood tests had led them to lift their "guarded" prognosis, although they insisted he continued to need hospitalization. The bulletin March 12 continued to speak of the "complexity" of the pope's illness.

The physicians leading the team of doctors treating Pope Francis have met reporters only once and that was Feb. 21, when the pope had been in the Gemelli hospital for one week.

The team is led by Dr. Sergio Alfieri, director of medical and surgical sciences at Rome's Gemelli hospital, and Dr. Luigi Carbone, vice director of the Vatican health service. At their February news conference, they said the whole team of doctors and Pope Francis himself approve what is released by the Vatican in the evening medical bulletins.

Pope Francis has continued watching the livestream of the morning and afternoon meditations offered to cardinals and senior members of the Roman Curia at their annual Lenten retreat, the bulletin said. He also "received the Eucharist, devoted himself to prayer" and then to physical therapy, which is designed to prevent the problems associated with limited movement during a prolonged hospital stay.

Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, began the Curia retreat March 12 by saying, "Good morning, and may it be a good morning especially for our Holy Father, to whom we offer our greetings, our affection and our prayers at the beginning of this day."

The dates for the traditional Lenten retreat were announced before Pope Francis was hospitalized Feb. 14. During the retreat, he does not hold his weekly general audience and usually does not schedule private audiences either.

For the first three Wednesdays that he was hospitalized, the Vatican press office published the text of the catechesis prepared for the general audiences. But since no audience was scheduled for March 12, no text was released.

A group of 85 pilgrims from Russia had planned their Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome before the date for the retreat was announced and before Pope Francis was hospitalized.

So, led by Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow, they walked more than two miles to the Gemelli hospital March 11 and spent an hour praying for Pope Francis, reciting the rosary in Russian and a Marian litany in Latin.

"We understood that we could not see him physically, but we tried to meet him spiritually, to intensify our spiritual bonds with him," Moscow Auxiliary Bishop Nicolai Dubinin, who also was part of the group, told Vatican News March 12. "Each pilgrim experienced this moment intensely. The meeting with the pope had been highly anticipated, but we felt very strongly the closeness with him."

The rosary, recited at the end of the Curia's retreat March 12 was led by Cardinal George Koovakad, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the main organizer of Pope Francis' trips abroad.

Members of the Curia, he said, were joining "the Christian faithful and members of other religious traditions who are offering prayers and sacrifices for the Holy Father."

"And also with many nonbelievers who appreciate and love Pope Francis and are worried about his health, we entrust the Holy Father and all the sick to the maternal protection of Mary," the cardinal said.

"We unite our invocations to those of the poor because their prayers are the most effective, as sacred Scripture suggests, especially in the Book of Sirach, which says, 'Prayer from the lips of the poor is heard at once,'" Cardinal Koovakad said.