Pope Francis spent his tenth day in hospital Sunday as Catholics around the world prayed for his recovery, the day after the Vatican warned the 88-year-old’s condition was “critical”.
The Argentine pontiff, who is being treated for double pneumonia, suffered a prolonged asthma-style attack on Saturday and required blood transfusions for a low platelet count.
On Sunday morning the Holy See said “the night passed peacefully, the pope rested” — indicating no repeat of the crisis the previous day, Vatican sources said.
But Francis, who had part of a lung removed when he was a young man, is still receiving oxygen through a tube in his nostrils in the papal suite at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
In a message published Sunday but written in the past few days, the Jesuit thanked hospital staff and said he had confidence in his treatment.
“I am confidently continuing my hospitalisation at the Gemelli Hospital, carrying on with the necessary treatment — and rest is also part of the therapy!” he said.
“I ask you to pray for me,” he concluded in the text published in lieu of his weekly Sunday Angelus, which he normally delivers from a window overlooking St Peter’s Square.
Francis, who has been head of the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted on February 14 initially with bronchitis, but his condition has deteriorated since then.
In its evening update Saturday, the Vatican warned his “condition continues to be critical, therefore the pope is not out of danger”.
It said Francis was alert and “spent the day in an armchair even if he was suffering more than” the day before.
It said he had a “prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis, which also required the application of high-flow oxygen”.
Daily blood tests also “showed thrombocytopenia, associated with anaemia, which required the administration of blood transfusions”, it added.
Thrombocytopenia is a condition that occurs when the platelet count in the blood is too low, which can cause trouble stopping bleeding.
Blood or platelet transfusions, delivered via an intravenous (IV) line, are given to people who are either bleeding heavily or at very high risk of bleeding, according to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“The pope gets worse,” headlined Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper on Sunday, while La Repubblica described it as the “darkest day” at the Vatican.
Well-wishers have been leaving candles outside the Gemelli since Francis was admitted, and a special mass was planned for Sunday evening in Rome.
