Pope’s health shows further slight improvement, Vatican says

Pope Francis has shown further slight improvement as he battles double pneumonia, the Vatican said.

But doctors on Wednesday said his prognosis is still guarded.

A CT chest scan taken on Tuesday evening showed the “normal evolution” of an infection as it is being treated.

Blood tests have confirmed an improvement, according to the Vatican’s late update.

The slight kidney insufficiency detected a few days ago has receded, and Francis is continuing to receive respiratory physiotherapy.

It was the first time the Vatican has said Francis was receiving physiotherapy to help him expel fluid from his lungs.

Francis resumed work in the afternoon, after receiving the Eucharist in the morning.

He was sitting upright and receiving therapy, the Vatican said, as Argentines, Romans and others have kept up the steady stream of prayers for his recovery.

Meanwhile, the Holy See machinery has ground on, with the announcement of new bishops and a new church fundraising initiative.

The pope continues to receive high flows of supplemental oxygen but has not had any further respiratory crises since Saturday.

Significantly, the doctors did not repeat that Francis remained in critical condition, though they said his prognosis remained guarded.

A complex lung infection has kept the 88-year-old pope in hospital since February 14.

Francis has chronic lung disease and was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital after a bout of bronchitis worsened.

The Vatican said the pope had a peaceful night and was up, sitting in his armchair on Wednesday receiving therapy.

Doctors have said he is not out of danger, but has not had any further respiratory crises since Saturday.

Francis has been working from his hospital room, and the daily grind of the Vatican bureaucracy has been continuing in his absence.

On Wednesday the Vatican said Francis had appointed four new bishops and approved the creation of a new fundraising initiative to encourage donations to the Holy See, which has been enduring a financial crisis for years.

Francis likely approved the bishop appointments awhile back and the new norms for the fundraising entity were approved February 11, before he was admitted to hospital.

But the announcements made them official and suggested Francis was still very much in charge and governing.

The dean of the College of Cardinals, meanwhile, was designated to lead the Vatican’s prayer vigil in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday night, thrusting a key figure in a future possible conclave into the spotlight.

Francis recently extended the term of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, keeping him in the important job rather than naming someone new.

As is now popularly known thanks to the Oscar-nominated film “Conclave”, the dean is a key point of reference for cardinals.

He presides over a papal funeral and organises the conclave to elect a new pope.

From 2000-2010, Cardinal Re was prefect of the Vatican’s congregation for bishops, one of the most powerful and influential positions in the Holy See.

Francis made him dean in 2020 and confirmed him in the job in January despite the expiration of his five-year term.

On Tuesday night, the faithful from Francis’ homeland gathered in the Argentine church of Rome for a special Mass presided over by Cardinal Baldassarre Reina, the pope’s vicar for Rome.

Cardinal Reina was also celebrating the lunchtime Mass on Wednesday at Gemelli to pray for Francis.

The rector of the Argentine church, the Reverend Fernando Laguna, said that he hoped the pope could feel the embrace of the community’s prayer.

“I can’t go to Gemelli, because for him to recover he must be isolated,” he said. “I know that I hug him and that he hugs me when I pray. And now I would like to embrace the pope.”

Sister Nilda Trejo, an Argentine nun, said that she knew Francis’ health has always been delicate, with problems breathing and speaking loudly, and that is why she always prayed for him.

“We knew that he often found it difficult,” she said. “In fact, you see that at the beginning of Mass, the microphone always has to be turned up because he has a bit of trouble. But he always spoke to the people. To the heart of the people.”