Pope Francis had a good night early Monday after clearly overcoming a retreat in recovery from pneumonia. He is stable, has no mechanical ventilation and has shown no signs of a new infection after the respiratory crisis later last week.
“The Pope rested well all night,” the Vatican said in an update from Gemeri Hospital, where Francis has been hospitalized since February 14th.
Doctors reported that the 88-year-old Pope spent Sunday without using a non-invasive mechanical ventilation mask that pumps oxygen into the lungs, which he had to use following the episode of Friday's cough.
Francis continued to receive high flow supplementary oxygen through the nasal tube.
Friday's respiratory crisis sparked fear of a new lung infection as Francis inhaled vomit.
The doctors aspired to do so and said it would take 24-48 hours to determine if a new infection has taken hold.
On Sunday evening, they said Francis remained stable, showing that he had overcome the crisis without any signs of fever or infection.
However, his prognosis remained protected, which means he is not out of danger.
Francis was visited on Sunday by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of the Vatican, and his Chief of Staff, Archbishop Edgar Pena Para.
The content of their talks is unknown, but even at the Vatican, Francis meets them at least every week.
He again skipped the noon blessing every week to avoid a brief public appearance from the hospital.
Instead, the Vatican distributed a written message from the tenth floor written by the Pope, where he thanked the doctors the wealthy for their care and prayers, and prayed once more for peace in Ukraine and elsewhere.
“From here on, the war seems even more ridiculous,” Francis said in a message.
Francis said he lived in his hospitalization as an experience of deep solidarity with people suffering from illness everywhere.
“In my mind I feel the “blessing” hidden in my weakness. Because it is precisely at this very moment that we learn more to trust in the Lord,” Francis said in the text.
“At the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share the body and mind of so many illnesses and suffering people.”
The Argentine Pope, who removed part of one lung as a young man, was hospitalized at Gemeri on February 14 after his bronchitis worsened and turned into complex pneumonia in both lungs.
On Sunday night at the Vatican, Cardinal Conrad Krajewski presided over an evening rosary prayer at St. Peter's Square.
“Let us pray with the whole Church for the health of our Holy Father Francis,” says Krajewski, the Pope's personal armoner, to hand over centuries-old alms.
Francis raised his job to be an extension of his own personal charity.
