ROME (AP) — A stable Pope Francis had a visit Sunday from the Vatican secretary of state as he continued his recovery from double pneumonia, the Vatican said, but again skipped his weekly noon blessing to avoid even a brief public appearance from the hospital.
Instead, the Vatican distributed a message from the pope in which he thanked his doctors for their care and well-wishers for their prayers, and prayed again for peace in Ukraine and elsewhere.
“From here, war appears even more absurd,” Francis said in the message, which he drafted in recent days from the Gemelli hospital, the Vatican said. Francis said he was living his hospitalization as an experience of profound solidarity with people who are sick and suffering everywhere,
“I feel in my heart the ‘blessing’ that is hidden within frailty, because it is precisely in these moments that we learn even more to trust in the Lord,” Francis said in the text. “At the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share in body and spirit the condition of so many sick and suffering people.”
A man shelters from the rain as he prays for Pope Francis in front of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, where the Pontiff has been hospitalized since Feb.14, in Rome, Saturday, March 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
via Associated Press
Signs point to a recovery
It marked the third weekend in a row that Francis has canceled the Sunday appointment delivering the Angelus prayer in person. He could have done so from his 10th floor hospital suite at the Gemelli hospital if he were well enough.
But many signs indicated he was recovering and improving. “The night was quiet, the pope is still resting,” the Vatican said in its Sunday update.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin and his chief of staff, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, called on the pope Sunday morning, their second visit since Francis’ Feb. 14 hospitalization, according to the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni. There were no details of what was discussed, but the mere visit suggested Francis’ condition was stabilizing.
“The night was quiet, the pope is still resting,” the Vatican said in its Sunday early update.
He had no fever or signs of elevated white blood cells, which would signal his body was still fighting an infection.
Doctors on Saturday reported that Francis was in stable condition, with no mention of him being critical. Their upbeat assessment came a day after a respiratory crisis that resulted in him being put on noninvasive mechanical ventilation.
But the 88-year-old pope had a “good response” in his gas exchange levels even during the “long periods” he was off the ventilator mask Saturday and only using high-flow supplemental oxygen, the Vatican said.
The fact that Francis was able to use just high-flow oxygen for long periods, without any significant effect on the levels of oxygen in his blood,