The breathing crisis renews worries about the pontiff’s health as it is fighting double pneumonia.
Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for two weeks with pneumonia on both lungs, had a peaceful night after suffering a Respiratory crisisThe Vatican says.
The 88 -year -old pontiff suffered a crisis on Friday, including « vomiting with inhalation and a sudden worsening of respiratory condition, » said the Vatican.
On Saturday, the Holy See said in a statement: « The Pope spent a peaceful night and rests. »
A Vatican source added that « there has been no crisis like yesterday. The pope woke up, had breakfast and read the papers as usual. « »
On Friday, Francis needed aspiration to help elimit the vomit of his respiratory tract, noted the Vatican, and said that he also required non -invasive mechanical ventilation, which means that he was not intubated, which would have required sedation.
Pope’s doctors said that after Friday’s health problems, they would need 24 to 48 hours to see if the Pope’s breath problem has worsened his condition.
Francis was admitted At the University Hospital of Gemelli in Rome on February 14 with severe respiratory problems that degenerated rapidly in double pneumonia, a serious infection on the two lungs that can inflame them and heal it, which makes it difficult to breathe.
He last suffered what the Vatican described as a « prolonged respiratory crisis as asthma » on February 22, but there had been no crisis repeated until Friday.
Francis has not been seen in public since the entrance to the hospital, his longer absence since his papacy began in March 2013.
On Saturday, a Vatican official said that for a third week, the Pope is not expected to run his usual Sunday sentences with the pilgrims, and that, once again, the text of the Angelus sentence would be published instead of reading it.
There has been speculation as to whether Francis could resign now, especially since his calendar has been full of papal functions during the celebrations for the Year Saint Retiree.
« If the Pope survives, many imagine he will want to end the Jubilee Year, but after he is 89 years old, he will face the question of whether or not he resigned, » said the Italian Vatican expert Marco Politi to the AFP news agency.
Francis has always said that he is open to following his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 left his age (85 years) and his physical health.
But before his hospitalization, Francis had repeatedly said that it was not yet the time, and that he was never.
In the meantime, Catholics around the world continue to pray for the rapid recovery of the Pope.
On Saturday, people approached the Gemelli Hospital, bravely the rain to light their candles and pray at the foot of a statue of Pope John Paul II.
An older man stood for about five minutes under an umbrella with a lit candle that he later placed carefully at the foot of the statue.
About a dozen nuns also prayed for the pontiff while handwritten messages for « Pope Francesco », including children illustrated by children and balloons carrying the image of Francis.
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