Hospitalized for more than a month, Pope Francis has been in a stable state since March 10, but still requires care and respiratory assistance. The Vatican does not advance on the date of return of the Sovereign Pontiff to the Holy See.
The essentials:
- Hospitalized since February 14, Pope Francis is still followed at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome this Monday, March 17. He is in a stable state and therapies show “new gradual improvements” of his health, but he always “needs hospital medical therapy” said the Vatican in his latest bulletin.
- Admitted to the hospital for bilateral pulmonary infection, Pope Francis is still placed under high speed oxygen therapy, even if “the need for non -invasive mechanical ventilation at night is gradually reduced” explains the Vatican. After four episodes of respiratory failure, the Holy Father also follows “motor and respiratory physiotherapy”.
- After more than a month spent in the hospital, Pope Francis is the sovereign pontiff to have had the longest hospitalization just after Pope John Paul II who had hospitalized for 55 days in 1981. No release date is announced by Pope Francis who is still under medical supervision.
- If Pope Francis has not been seen since his hospitalization on February 14, the Vatican published a photo of the Sovereign Pontiff on Sunday, March 16, the 88 -year -old man appears to be sitting in a wheelchair and three -quarters praying. The Vatican also published a message from Pope Francis during the Sunday Angelus in which the Holy Father said “weakened” and “confronted with a test”.
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12:02 – Pope Francis always on respiratory aid
Pope Francis would always suffer from some breathing difficulties according to the news of the Vatican, a consequence of the pneumonia that led him to the hospital. The sovereign pontiff is therefore always placed under respiratory assistance: high -speed oxygen therapy continues, as well as non -invasive mechanical ventilation set up at night. The fact remains that the need for the latter is gradually reduced according to the Holy See. In parallel, Pope Francis benefits “from motor and respiratory physiotherapy”.
10:41 – An image and a message from Pope Francis “weakened”
The Vatican gave signs of life by Pope Francis on Sunday 16 years, more than a month after the hospitalization of the Sovereign Pontiff. While the 88-year-old man has not been seen publicly since mid-February, the Holy See published a photo of the Jesuit dressed in a white chasuble and a purple stole, during a prayer, in the chapel of the hospital. The man appears in a wheelchair and three -quarter, his face oriented downwards in a prayer position is not discernible. On the same day, the Vatican published a message from Pope Francis during the Sunday Angelus. “I am confronted with an ordeal and I join so many brothers and sisters who are sick, fragile, at the moment, like me,” wrote the Holy Father in this message that continues: “Our bodies are weakened, but even so, nothing can prevent us from loving, praying, of giving us, being for each other, in faith, signs of hope.”
10:17 – A week after the prognosis, Pope Francis always hospitalized
While the doctors announced the lifting of the prognosis on March 10, a week later Pope Francis is still hospitalized. His condition has not deteriorated, on the contrary, he showed “new improvements” according to the Vatican, but not enough for the 88 -year -old Jesuit to leave the hospital. If “the clinical state of the Holy Father remained stable, confirming the progress highlighted last week”, “the Holy Father still needs hospital medical therapy, motor and respiratory physiotherapy” writes the Vatican in his latest bulletin published during the weekend.
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The state of health of Pope Francis has been stable for several days on Monday March 10, 2025, the date on which doctors decided to “lift the prognosis” which was until then “reserved”. But doctors did not wish to rule on a possible evolution of the prognosis of the 88 -year -old Jesuit wishing to see the same positive results “in the coming days”. Since then, the state of health of Pope Francis does not seem to have deteriorated, on the contrary the Vatican evokes “new improvements”. Pharmacological therapies and physiotherapy are still maintained, as well as the respiratory assistance of the Sovereign Pontiff which tends to decrease.
On March 6, the Sovereign Pontiff had spoke for the first time since his hospitalization. In a chevant and not really reassuring voice, he addressed the faithful: “Thank you with all my heart for the prayers you make for my health from the place (Saint-Pierre de Rome), I accompany you by”, explained the sovereign pontiff. “May God bless you and the Virgin takes care of you,” he continued. “The complexity of the clinical picture and the necessary wait for pharmacological therapies to require the requirement to remain reserved on the prognosis,” said his health bulletin.
Pope Francis has been hospitalized for more than three weeks, but he has been sick for longer. What has been announced as bronchitis has become pneumonia affecting the two lungs. In detail, the Vatican indicates that “polymicrobial infection, which has declared itself against the backdrop of bronchitasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and which required the use of antibiotic therapy based on cortisone, makes therapeutic treatment more complex”. As a reminder, Saturday, February 22, the Pope was also the victim of an breathing asthmatic crisis. He then needed a broadband oxygen supply, as well as blood transfusion.
Pope Francis’s fragile health
Caution remains in view of the fragile health of Pope Francis, 88 years old. Especially since a long hospitalization is not without risk as Margherita de Talle de Torrere sulra indicated on Wednesday: “The most dreaded danger is sepsis, the passage of microorganisms in the blood which propagate to other organs, with very serious consequences”. The Italian newspaper also revealed that the sovereign pontiff should observe two to three weeks of “absolute rest”. In France, the deputy editor-in-chief of the cross and former correspondent to the Vatican, Loup Besmond de Senneville, is also worried about the view of the communication of the Holy See on RTL: “If the Vatican evokes a worrying, complex clinical picture, with words that report real problems, it is clearly the most serious and most concern communications that we have ever seen on hospitalization of Pope Francis”.
In recent years, the octogenarian has multiplied hospitalizations and operations, some of which had been hidden by religious authorities before being revealed by Italian media. The health concerns of the Pope, who appeared, very weakened had then aroused great concern. After consecutive and rather important medical problems, between 2021 and 2023, Pope Francis seems to have escaped new big health problems in recent months. The new hospitalization of the Pope at the beginning of 2025 is worrying, the state of the Pope is to be monitored: in people over 75, acute bronchitis can justify increased medical surveillance, especially when symptoms and inflammation persist beyond 10 days.