Cardinals think that Pope Francis is still seriously sick but vigilant

The Vatican announced on Monday that although Pope Francis is currently in grave condition due to double pneumonia and the beginning of mild renal failure, he is nonetheless awake.

The 88-year-old pope stayed at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for the eleventh day in a row, making it the longest hospital stay of his almost 12-year pontificate.

Francis was eating regularly and was able to roam around his hospital room, according to a Vatican official who asked not to be named because he was not permitted to discuss the pope’s condition.

Blood tests on Sunday revealed a “initial, slight insufficiency” in the pope’s renal function, which the Vatican claimed was under control, and it categorized his situation as serious for a second day.

As per the most recent medical assessment on Sunday evening, the pope’s prognosis remained “guarded” following a “prolonged asthma-like respiratory crisis” that resulted in a blood transfusion on Saturday.

In a brief update on Monday morning, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated, “It was a good night, the pope slept and is resting,” without offering any other details.

On Monday night, another report on the pope’s health was anticipated.

Breathing becomes challenging when you have double pneumonia, a dangerous illness that can cause inflammation and scarring in both lungs. The pope’s sickness, according to the Vatican, was “complex,” meaning it was brought on by two or more microbes.

Over the previous two years, Francis, who has been pope since 2013, has experienced periods of poor health. Because he had part of one lung removed and had pleurisy as a young adult, he is especially vulnerable to lung infections.

According to the Sunday night medical report, the pope was “alert and well-oriented” and was undergoing “high-flow oxygen therapy” via a tube inserted beneath his nose.

The functioning of the kidneys, which filter waste items in the blood, was “an initial, slight renal insufficiency, which is currently under control,” according to the report.

Cardinals make assumptions about Pope.

The protracted sickness of the pope has sparked an unprecedented level of public conjecture among Catholic cardinals, who are the highest ranked officials in the church, which has 1.4 billion members, after the pope.

In a Sunday homily at Mass at his cathedral, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is not known to be close to Francis and who did not provide any information other than the Vatican’s medical reports, stated that the pope was “probably close to death.”

Prelates who were openly discussing the pope’s health or organizing a conclave—a covert assembly of cardinals to choose a new pope—were reprimanded by German Cardinal Gerhard Muller, a former Vatican official who was known to have differed with Francis on theological matters.

Cardinals were not getting any more information on the pope’s health than the general people, he told Italy’s Corriere della Sera.

Muller stated, “We are not medical experts,” in reference to cardinals.

“The pope is still alive, and this is a moment for prayer,” he stated. “If there is anyone who is looking to the future while Francis is in the hospital, that’s good for nothing.”

On Monday night, the Vatican intended to hold a prayer session for Francis in St. Peter’s Square. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s second-highest official, will lead the ceremony, which will be the first of the square’s ongoing nightly prayers.

On Monday, crowds gathered outside Gemelli Hospital to pray for Francis in front of a monument of the late Pope John Paul II, who received several medical treatments there during his 1978–2005 pontificate.

Many in her native Ukraine were praying for Francis, according to Maria Vozlv, a Ukrainian who has lived in Rome for eighteen years.

The pope has frequently prayed for peace and denounced the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine.

According to Vozlv, “We Ukrainians are really praying for him,” “He needs to get well and come home.”