Pope Francis continues to attentive the latest events in the world and in the Church from the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, where this Sunday he reached 24 days admitted by respiratory problems for now stabilized and that improve little by little.
The Argentine pontiff in fact has been able to continue by videoconference this Sunday afternoon the spiritual exercises of Lent that the Roman curia carries out in the Classroom Paul VI of the Vatican, although without being seen through the screen.
Francisco, 88, remains hospitalized since February 14 for bilateral pneumonia that in recent weeks has caused some worrying crises but now shows a “gradual and slight improvement”, with a “good” response to therapy.
Doctors have not issued their part this Sunday but sources from the Holy See indicate that the situation remains the same as that of the last one, yesterday: “stability continues and confirms the slight improvement warned” on the eve.
Although they maintain a cautious position, since their clinical picture remains “complex” and, therefore, their prognosis remains reserved.
The Pope is dedicated to rest in the private apartment of the tenth of the Gemelli, while exercising with motor and respiratory physiotherapy. For the day, it receives high oxygen flows with nasal cannulas and at night use mechanical ventilation, with a mask.
He has already exceeded the three weeks hidden from the world and the only time his voice – downtown, affected and in Spanish – has exceeded its walls was last Thursday, with an audiomegiveness in which he thanked the faithful who pray for their health in the Plaza de San Pedro.
However, he continues to rule the church and is informed of what happens in the world from his hospital room, baptized by John Paul II as ‘Vatican Third’, for his many income (after the Holy See and the summer palace of Castelgandolfo).
This Sunday, for example, he could not preside over the Mass for the jubilee of the volunteers in the Plaza de San Pedro del Vaticano but was responsible for writing his homily, read in his name before thousands of cooperators by Cardinal Officer, Michael Czerny.
The same did with the traditional Ángelus Mariano, disseminated for fourth consecutive Sunday only in writing, since naturally he cannot preside from the Apostolic Palace window.
Worried about today
In this text, the Argentine pontiff expressed his “concern” for maximum acts, the escalation of violence in several points of Syria for those still loyal to the overthrown regime of Bachar al Asad.
“I have received with concern the resumption of violence in some areas of Syria. I hope it definitely ceases, in the full respect of all the ethnic and religious communities of society and especially civilians, ”Bergoglio urged, in writing.
In the morning, in his hospital stay he had received his Secretary of State Vatican, Pietro Parolin, and the substitute for general affairs, the Venezuelan Monsignor Edgar Peña Parra.
His idea is to “insert these encounters into their hospitalization” in the Gemelli, because “they serve as an occasion to update you about the situation of the Church and the world,” Vatican Fuentes point out.
Especially since its permanence and eventual convalescence can go for long, as happened with the 55 days that Pope Wojtyla was admitted by a citomegalovirus infection contracted after the two operations carried out because of the attack of May 1981.
Francisco today alluded to his “prolonged hospitalization” by thanking in the Angelus the “dedication” and “the tenderness in care” he receives from the medical team that assists, thus all the toilets who, anywhere, are “close to the sick” and of whom “spend a difficult time.”
The next update of the medical part with the clinical conditions of the Argentine Pope will arrive on Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, in the Plaza de San Pedro the prayer of the Rosary will continue for his health by the Roman curia, but not at night, but in the middle of the afternoon, around 18:00 local time (17:00 GMT), and under the roof of the classroom Paul VI of the Vatican, where the spiritual exercises are celebrated these days without the presence of the Pope but “in communion” with him.
With EFE information
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