Eighty-eight-year-old Pope Francis had a “peaceful night” in the hospital in Rome, after starting the fourth week of his treatment for bilateral pneumonia yesterday, the Vatican announced today, quoted by Agence France-Presse and BTA.
“The night was calm, the Pope is resting“, said the Vatican's brief morning statement about the pontiff, who has been in a special ward at the “Gemelli“ hospital since February 14.
Since his admission to the hospital, the Pope has suffered several attacks of respiratory failure, the last of which on Monday, but for several days the Vatican has described his condition as “stable“.
On Thursday, the Vatican published an audio message from the Pope, in which for the first time Catholic believers hear his voice after his admission to the hospital. In the 25-second message, delivered in a very hoarse voice, he thanked those praying for his recovery.
The pope continues to have a “complicated clinical picture“ and the prognosis for his recovery “remains cautious”, the Vatican said yesterday.
Francis has made no other public appearances and no photos or videos of him have been published since the start of his hospital stay, the longest since his election in 2013.