Pope Francis has woken up and is continuing his therapies after a quiet night, on the 10th day of his hospitalisation for a complex lung infection that has provoked the early stages of kidney insufficiency, the Vatican says.
The 88-year-old Pope was continuing to feed himself and not receiving artificial or liquid nutrition, the Vatican said on Monday morning (Monday evening AEDT), adding that he was in good spirits.
“The night passed well, the Pope slept and is resting,” it said.
A medical bulletin was expected later in the day. Also later on Monday, the Vatican No.2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was to lead a nighttime prayer of the Rosary in St Peter’s Square.
Late on Sunday (early Monday AEDT), doctors reported that blood tests showed “early, slight kidney insufficiency” that was nevertheless under control.
They said Francis remained in critical condition but that he hadn’t experienced any further respiratory crises since Saturday.
Francis, who has pneumonia in both lungs, was receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen and, on Sunday, was alert, responsive and attended Mass. They said his prognosis was guarded.
Doctors have said Francis’ condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. They have warned that the main threat facing Francis is sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.
To date there has been no reference to any onset of sepsis in the medical updates provided by the Vatican.
This hospitalisation now stands as Francis’ longest as pope. He spent 10 days at Rome’s Gemelli hospital in 2021 after he had 33 centimetres of his colon removed.
In New York on Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan acknowledged what church leaders in Rome weren’t saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father”.
“Our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death,” Dolan said in his homily from the pulpit of St Patrick’s Cathedral, though he later told reporters he hoped and prayed that Francis would “bounce back”.
Francis’ condition has revived speculation about what might happen if he becomes unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, and whether he might resign.
