The state of Pope Francis has improved enough for him to be returned from a hospital in Rome on Sunday and sent to recover to the Vatican for at least two months, his doctors announced on Saturday evening.
Sunday, Francis plans to make his first public appearance since he was hospitalized on February 14. He should appear at noon on the balcony of the 10th floor of the Gemelli hospital in Rome, where he stayed, to greet the crowd and transmit a traditional press conference, Matteo Bruni, the spokesman for the Vatican, during a press conference on Saturday.
The announcement of the Pope’s future publication made a remarkable turn of events for the chief of almost 1.4 billion Roman Catholics in the world, after weeks when he was in critical condition and the Roman Catholic Church seemed on the brink of a conclave to choose his successor. Instead, the stable improvement, although slow by Francis, inaugurated a new phase for him and the church.
He will return to the Vatican, physically reduced, at least in the short term, without his voice, depending on the oxygen and deprived of proximity to the faithful, who was the mark of his pontificate and the manifestation of his pastoral vision of the church.
“This is a sigh of relief,” Father Antonio Spadaro said a partner close to Francis on Saturday. He added that for the Church, but also for a world in flow, “there was a great anticipation, as well as needs, for its presence.”
Francis had been able to govern the church from the hospital, but after finishing his blessing on Sunday, he returned home, said Mr. Bruni.
Only weeks ago, there was a lot of concern within the Church and beyond that it would never return. Doctors, speaking at a press conference at Gemelli Hospital on Saturday evening, said that the Pope’s pneumonia in the two lungs had been so serious that he had twice put his life in serious danger.
But they said he had been stable for two weeks and that in the last three or four days, he had asked when he could go home.
“He was very happy,” said Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of the medical team who takes care of the Pope. Dr. Alfieri added that he was himself happy to share “the good news that I imagine that the whole world was waiting for”.
The doctors said that the Pope had overcome his most dangerous infections, but that he was not completely healed and had to rest for at least two months.
But doctors have said that Francis, 88, would always require drug treatment and oxygen, as it is normal for patients who recover from pneumonia, before it can resume its regular schedule. They added that they hoped that it would no longer require oxygen, but asked that the Pope avoids meeting large groups and people with young children, and that he avoids other possible sources of infection.
His doctors also said that Francis had trouble speaking, which was to be expected for a patient who had suffered serious damage to lungs and respiratory muscles.
“One of the first things that happens is that you lose a little voice,” said Dr. Luigi Carbon, the Pope’s Vatican doctor, who also spoke during a press conference on Saturday evening. “It will take time for her voice to come back as it was.”
For weeks, Catholics around the world have been praying for the recovery of the Pope, and since February 25, the cardinals and the bishops have led A prayer of the night rosary On the Place Saint-Pierre which attracts hundreds of faithful every night.
Francis remained in critical condition for several weeks because he experienced an asthmatic respiratory crisis; initial and light renal failure; And a bronchial spasm that made him inhale his vomit after a cough. It used non -invasive mechanical ventilation during the night and high speed oxygen therapy during the day.
The doctors said that after the pope had survived his most serious crises, they asked him how he was going.
“” I’m still alive, “said Dr. Alfieri, the Pope replied. “It was then that we knew that he was fine and had regained his good humor.”
Francis entered the hospital with acute respiratory failure of viral and bacterial infections, but was treated with drug treatment and oxygen which has slowly improved its condition. The Pope, said that his doctors said on Saturday, had never been intubated and remained alert and aware throughout his hospitalization.
The doctors said that the Pope’s Vatican residence was sufficiently equipped to meet his medical needs and that they had emergency services available 24 hours a day.
Francis often fought with bronchitis during the winter months, but that had not prevented the pope of Follow an exhausting schedule In the weeks preceding its hospitalization, intensified by the opening of the 2025 jubilee, a year of faith, penance and forgiveness of sins that only take place each quarter century.
