Pope Francis has spent a second quiet night recovering from his bronchitis at the Policlinico Gemelli hospital in Rome. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, has assured this Friday that he will be discharged this Saturday and that he will therefore be in a position to preside over all the celebrations of the imminent Holy Week in the Vatican, which begins this Sunday with Sunday of Ramos.
“The Pope, based on the information I have, will leave the Gemelli tomorrow, and thus he will be able to preside over all the rites of Holy Week,” Re said in statements to the Italian news agency Adnkronos. “With the Pope,” Re added, “there will be a celebrant cardinal at each celebration to whom the needs of the altar will correspond.” Francisco, he insisted, “he will be at the Urbi et Orbi, he will read the message and preside over all the rites.”
The Pontiff was hospitalized on Wednesday afternoon for bronchitis of infectious origin and is reacting well to the intravenous antibiotic treatment that his doctors are giving him. This Thursday they already said that there had been a “net improvement” in his state of health and that, according to the “expected evolution”, he could “be discharged in the coming days.”
The Argentine pope had been having trouble breathing for a few days and, after feeling unwell at Wednesday’s general audience in the Vatican, his medical team decided that it was best for him to go to the Gemelli by ambulance for check-ups. The Holy See quickly canceled an interview organized with an Italian program on the occasion of Easter and cleared its schedule for this Thursday and this Friday.
At the Gemelli Polyclinic, in the apartment reserved for the popes on the tenth floor of this Roman health center, they have carried out all kinds of tests, including a chest CT scan, with reassuring results. Blood oxygen saturation is being checked at all times. This is the same place where he underwent colon surgery in July 2021, when 33 centimeters of intestine were removed. It is also the place where John Paul II spent long periods, to the point that it was known as “Vatican 3”, behind the Castel Gandolfo summer residence.
The spokesman for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, has recounted that Jorge Mario Bergoglio spent the first day of his hospital admission resting, praying, reading some newspapers and even taking up some work issues. Some world leaders have wished him a speedy recovery, starting with US President Joe Biden, who has said he is praying for him because “the world needs Pope Francis.”
