Pope responding well to pneumonia therapy and showing ‘slight improvement’

Pope Francis is responding well to treatment for double pneumonia and has shown a “gradual, slight improvement” in recent days, the Vatican has said.

The 88-year-old, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, has remained stable with no fever and good oxygen levels in his blood for several days, doctors said in a Vatican statement.

But they have decided to keep his prognosis as guarded, meaning he is not out of danger yet.

The doctors said such stability “as a consequence testifies to a good response to therapy”.

It is the first time doctors have reported Francis is responding positively to the treatment for the complex lung infection that was diagnosed after he was taken to hospital on February 14.

Francis worked and rested during the day on Saturday, as he entered his fourth week at Rome’s Gemelli hospital with his condition stabilised after a few bouts of acute respiratory crises last week.

“In order to record these initial improvements in the coming days as well, his doctors have prudently maintained the prognosis as guarded,” the statement said.

In his absence, the Vatican’s day-to-day operations continued, with Cardinal Pietro Parolin celebrating Mass for an anti-abortion group in St Peter’s Basilica. At the start, he delivered a message from the Pope from the hospital on the need to protect life, from birth to natural death.

In the message, dated March 5 and addressed to the Movement for Life, which seeks to provide women with alternatives to abortion, Francis encouraged the faithful to promote anti-abortion activities not just for the unborn, but “for the elderly, no longer independent or the incurably ill”.

Later on Saturday, another cardinal closely associated with Francis’s papacy, Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, will preside over the nightly recitation of prayers for Francis.

Cardinal Czerny then returns on Sunday to celebrate the Holy Year Mass for volunteers which Francis had been due to celebrate.

Francis has been using high flows of supplemental oxygen to help him breathe during the day and a non-invasive mechanical ventilation mask at night.

Francis was admitted on February 14 for what was then just a bad case of bronchitis. The infection progressed into a complex respiratory tract infection and double pneumonia which has sidelined him for the longest period of his 12-year papacy and raised questions about the future.