LAST UPDATE | 22 Feb

POPE FRANCIS’S CONDITION “continues to be critical”, the Vatican said Saturday, explaining that he was alert and in his armchair but also required “high-flow oxygen” and blood transfusions.

“This morning Pope Francis presented a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis, which also required the application of high-flow oxygen,” it said in a statement, saying daily blood tests showed a condition associated with anemia “which required the administration of blood transfusions”.

Earlier today, it said that Pope Francis “rested well” during his eighth night in hospital, where the 88-year-old is being treated for double pneumonia.

Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on 14 February with bronchitis, but it turned into pneumonia in both lungs, causing widespread concern for his health. 

The pontiff is set to remain in hospital for at least another week, with his doctors telling a press conference on Friday that while there was no imminent risk to his life, he is “not out of danger”.

In a shorter update than usual this morning, the Vatican did not mention whether the pontiff had eaten anything, simply saying: “Pope Francis rested well.” 

The Vatican also said he will miss the Angelus prayer on Sunday for the second straight week.

The text will only be published, not read out, as it was last Sunday, spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

The Gemelli’s Professor Sergio Alfieri told reporters on Friday that the pontiff’s condition has been slightly improving, allowing doctors to incrementally lower the amount of medication he is taking.

“The question is, is the pope out of danger? No, the pope is not out of danger,” Alfieri said.

“If you then ask whether he is in danger of dying at this moment, the answer is still no,” he added.

His hospitalisation has cast doubt over Francis’s ability to continue as head of the world’s almost 1.4 billion Catholics.

But Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin dismissed this as “useless speculation” in an interview published Saturday with Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily.

“Now we are thinking about the health of the Holy Father, his recovery, his return to the Vatican: these are the only things that matter,” the cardinal said.

Parolin said he personally had not yet been to see the pope, saying he was available but so far there was no need.

“It is better if he remains protected and has as few visitors as possible, to allow him to rest and make the treatment he is undergoing more effective,” he added.

Sepsis risk

Doctors have warned that the main risk facing the pontiff would be the onset of sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.

Alfieri, the head of medicine and surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, said the biggest threat facing Francis was that some of the germs that are currently located in his respiratory system pass into the bloodstream, causing sepsis. Sepsis can lead to organ failure and death.

“Sepsis, with his respiratory problems and his age, would be really difficult to get out of,” Alfieri said.

“The English say ‘knock on wood,’ we say ‘touch iron’. Everyone touch what they want,” he said as he tapped the microphone. “But this is the real risk in these cases: that these germs pass to the bloodstream.”

“He knows he’s in danger,” Alfieri added. “And he told us to relay that.”

In hospital all week

Francis, who is staying in a special papal suite on the tenth floor of the Gemelli hospital, has been moving between his bed, a chair and an adjacent chapel where he prays.

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He will remain in hospital “at least for all next week”, Alfieri said.

“If we send him to Santa Marta (his home at the Vatican), he’ll start working again as before,” he said.

The doctor said “the real risk in these cases is that the germs pass into the blood”, which could result in sepsis, a life-threatening condition.

Doctor Luigi Carbone said the pope, who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, now has a chronic lung condition and “is by definition a fragile patient”.

But Alfieri stressed that “at the same time, he has incredible resilience. How many others would have endured all these infections with the workload he has?”

He added that Francis has difficulty breathing but was not on any machines and was “in good spirits”. He still has the wit of “a 70-year-old, maybe a 50-year-old”.

But Francis’s absence from the Vatican means questions are being raised over the future of a leader with a punishing schedule who has been increasingly plagued by health issues in recent years.

Since 2021 he has undergone colon and hernia surgery, is overweight and suffers constant hip and knee pain, which force him to use a wheelchair most of the time.

Francis is also one of the oldest popes ever – and though he has said the job is for life, the pope has left the door open to resigning like his predecessor Benedict XVI.

With reporting from © AFP 2025 and Press Association