Pope continues to rest, do paperwork at hospital

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The morning after the Vatican confirmed Pope Francis has double pneumonia, the director of the Vatican press office said the pope had a restful night at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told reporters early Feb. 19 that the pope slept peacefully, woke up and had breakfast.

A CT scan Feb. 18 “demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” according to the previous evening’s medical bulletin.

The 88-year-old pope’s history of lung problems and repeated bouts of bronchitis have resulted in “bronchiectasis,” a widening of the airways that makes a person more suspectable to infection, and “asthmatic bronchitis” which makes “therapeutic treatment more complex,” the bulletin had said.

Still, Pope Francis was reportedly getting out of bed each day, reading and doing some work. Although the doctors’ orders for “complete rest” meant he was not receiving visitors, his secretaries were at the hospital with him.

Most evenings at 7 p.m. he was making his regular phone call to Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the priests and sisters on staff are giving shelter to hundreds of people.

A source, who was not authorized to give details of the pope’s medical condition, said the pope’s heart is “holding up well” and that he has not needed a ventilator, oxygen mask or CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine.

The source also confirmed that a couple of days before Pope Francis agreed to be hospitalized, he had gone to Rome’s Gemelli Isola Hospital for tests. He has been an inpatient at the main Gemelli hospital since Feb. 14.