Ailing pope ‘critical but stable’, says Vatican

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, who is in hospital with pneumonia in both lungs, is still in a critical condition but is stable and working from his sick bed, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

Catholics across the globe have been praying for the 88-year-old amid hope he may be turning a corner on what doctors warn could be a long path to recovery. “The Holy Father´s clinical condition remains critical but stable,” the Vatican said the evening of Francis´s 12th day in the papal suite of Rome´s Gemelli hospital.

“There have been no acute respiratory episodes and hemodynamic parameters continue to be stable,” it said in a statement, referring to parameters such as heart rate and blood pressure. Francis, admitted on February 14 with breathing difficulties, suffered asthmatic respiratory attacks at the weekend that required high levels of oxygen and blood transfusions to combat anaemia.

On Tuesday, “he underwent a scheduled follow-up CT scan in the evening for radiological monitoring of bilateral pneumonia”, the Vatican said. “The prognosis remains reserved,” it said.

Despite his critical condition, the leader of the world´s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics has striven to keep up with Church matters from his hospital suite on the Gemelli´s 10th floor, according to the Vatican.

“In the morning, after receiving the Eucharist, he resumed work activities,” the statement said. Francis worked on Monday too, receiving the Vatican´s secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin and his number two, Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra.

The pope approved the canonisation of two Venezuelan and Italian laymen who died in the early 20th century, while authorising the first steps towards sainthood for three 19th-century priests. He also called the parish priest of Gaza´s Catholic community, as he has routinely done since the war broke out, the Vatican said.