Pope continues to improve, is doing respiratory therapy

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis’ clinical condition continued to improve Feb. 27, the Vatican said, and he had respiratory physiotherapy in the morning and the afternoon.

For the second day in a row, the 88-year-old pope’s doctors at Rome’s Gemelli hospital did not use the word “critical” when describing the pope’s condition in the medical bulletin they drafted for the Vatican press office to distribute.

Still, the bulletin said, “more days of clinical stability are needed” before the doctors will lift their “guarded” prognosis of the pope’s condition.

The medical bulletin also specified that the pope’s breathing had improved enough for him to alternate receiving high-flow oxygen through a nasal cannula and using a “ventimask” with a mix of room air.

Pope Francis has been hospitalized since Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with double pneumonia and a “polymicrobial” infection; he experienced an “asthmatic respiratory crisis” Feb. 22.

“The Holy Father devoted the morning to respiratory physiotherapy alternating with rest, while in the afternoon after an additional session of physiotherapy he spent time in prayer in the chapel” of the private suite of rooms reserved for the popes on the 10th floor of the hospital, the bulletin said.

He received the Eucharist, it said, “then he devoted himself to work.”

Earlier in the day, the Vatican announced the cancellation of the special Jubilee general audience Pope Francis was scheduled to hold March 1 for Holy Year pilgrims. But as of Feb. 27, the Vatican had not said what would happen with the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer March 2.

The previous two Sundays the Vatican released the text the pope had prepared for the Angelus, but the pope was not able to not send an audio message or go to the window of his hospital room to greet people gathered in the hospital courtyard to pray for him.

The Vatican’s customarily brief morning statement said that Pope Francis had slept well and was resting.

A few hours later, a Vatican source said the pope was out of bed and had eaten breakfast but was still using supplemental oxygen.

In the St. John Paul II Chapel of the Gemelli hospital, people gather every day at noon for an hour of Eucharistic adoration to pray for Pope Francis. At 1 p.m. each day Mass in the chapel also is offered for him.

Father Nunzio Currao, the hospital chaplain, presided over the Mass Feb. 27 and told the staff that while they were supposed to be at the now-canceled Jubilee audience March 1 during their own Holy Year pilgrimage, “we have him here, so let’s be satisfied with that.”

At night, in St. Peter’s Square, cardinals, Roman Curia officials and the faithful gather at 9 p.m. to pray the rosary for the pope. Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the papal vicar for Rome, led the prayer Feb. 27.