People pray at the statue of John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for pneumonia, in Rome on Feb. 23, 2025.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, center, celebrates a mass for the jubilee of deacons Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, in St. Peter’s Basilica at The Vatican that was supposed to be presided over by Pope Francis who was admitted over a week ago at Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic and is in critical conditions.
Pope Francis, with a complex lung infection, and in critical condition, offered his thanks for the “many messages of affection” he has received since he was hospitalised earlier this month.
Said the pope’s official account on X shared on Sunday: “I have been particularly struck by the letters and drawings from children. Thank you for your closeness, and for the consoling prayers I have received from all over the world!”
In a late update on Sunday, the Vatican said Francis remained in critical condition and blood tests showed early kidney failure but he remained alert and “well-oriented”.
The Vatican said the 88-year-old pontiff, who participated in Mass, has not had any more respiratory crises since Saturday night but was still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen.
Some blood tests showed “initial, mild, kidney failure”, but doctors said it was under control. The decreased platelet count, necessary for clotting, that was first detected Saturday was stable.
Concluded the doctors: “The complexity of the clinical picture, and the necessary wait for drug therapies to provide some feedback, dictate that the prognosis remains reserved”.
Francis has been hospitalised for a week while being treated for pneumonia and a complex lung infection. He was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened.
Prayers for him poured in from around the world, from his native Argentina to the seat of Sunni Islam in Cairo to schoolchildren in Rome.
In New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan admitted what church leaders in Rome weren’t saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father”.
Said Dolan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, without saying if he had independent information about the pope’s condition: “As our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death”.
Francis was supposed to have celebrated Mass on Sunday morning in St. Peter’s Basilica and ordained hundreds of deacons as part of the Vatican’s yearlong Holy Year commemoration.
The organiser of the Holy Year, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, celebrated the Mass in his place and offered a special prayer for Francis from the altar before delivering the homily the pope had prepared.
Said Fisichella to the hundreds of white-robed deacons: “Even though he is in a hospital bed, we feel Pope Francis close to us, we feel him present among us. And this compels us to make even stronger and more intense our prayer that the Lord will assist him in his time of trial and illness”.
The Deacons Jubilee, a day of the Holy Year dedicated to deacons, will attract over 6,000 pilgrims from about 100 countries to Rome.
Meanwhile, the Vatican hierarchy went on the defensive to tamp down rumors and speculation that Francis might decide to resign. There is no provision in canon law for what to do if a pope becomes incapacitated. Francis has said that he has written a letter of resignation that would be invoked if he were medically incapable of making such a decision.
In an interview with CBS News in May 2024, Francis said the idea of stepping down has never occurred to him.
Said Francis then: “Maybe if the day comes when my health can go no further. Perhaps because the only infirmity I have is in my knee, and that is getting much better. But it never occurred to me”.
Francis, took on the papacy in 2013 at the age of 76, after his predecessor, Benedict XVI, became the first pope to retire in about 600 years, citing his declining health before stepping down. He died in 2022 at age 95.
The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, gave a rare interview to Corriere della Sera to respond to speculation and rumors about a possible resignation. It came after the Vatican issued an unusual and official denial of an Italian media report that said Parolin and the pope’s chief canonist had visited Francis in the hospital in secret. Given the canonical requirements to make a resignation legitimate, the implications of such a meeting were significant, but the Vatican flat-out denied that any such meeting occurred.
Parolin said such speculation seemed “useless” when what really mattered was the health of Francis, his recovery and return to the Vatican.
Offered Parolin: “On the other hand, I think it is quite normal that in these situations uncontrolled rumors can spread or some misplaced comment is uttered. It is certainly not the first time it has happened. However, I don’t think there is any particular movement, and so far I haven’t heard anything like that”.
