Pope 'breathing on his own' despite pneumonia: Vatican source

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has "stable" conditions with his blood tests showing a "slight improvement", the Vatican said Wednesday, as the 88-year-old pontiff undergoes ongoing treatment for bronchitis in both lungs. 

"The clinical conditions of the Holy Father are stable. The blood tests, evaluated by the medical staff, show a slight improvement, particularly in inflammatory indices," the Vatican said in a statement. 

Earlier on Wednesday, a Vatican source said that Pope Francis's heart is holding up very well despite his pneumonia,  amid growing concerns over the hospitalised 88-year-old's condition.

The pontiff was admitted to a Rome hospital with bronchitis last week after suffering breathing difficulties, but the Holy See revealed on Tuesday evening that he had developed pneumonia in both of his lungs.

"The pope spent a peaceful night, woke up and had breakfast," the Vatican said Wednesday after Francis's fifth night at the Gemelli hospital, which has a suite reserved especially for popes.

"The pope is breathing on his own. His heart is holding up very well," a source in the Vatican said.

Francis has been speaking to friends by telephone, has been out of bed and sitting in a chair, and working on and off, the source said.

On Tuesday, the Vatican had reported that Francis was in "good spirits".

But in a evening medical bulletin, it warned that "the laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father's clinical condition continue to present a complex picture".

A "polymicrobial infection" which has come on top of "bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and which required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy, makes therapeutic treatment more complex", the Vatican said.

"The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon... demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy," it added.

The pontiff had part of his right lung cut away when he was 21, after developing pleurisy that almost killed him.

The Vatican has cancelled a papal audience on Saturday and said the pope would not attend a mass on Sunday, although it has yet to announce plans for his weekly Angelus prayer, which is held on Sunday at midday.

 'Delicate situation' 

Candles, some with pictures of the pope on them, have been set at the bottom of a statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital, where pilgrims have been coming to pray.

"I came to say a prayer for the pope so that he may recover soon. I send him my best wishes", Jacqueline Troncoso, a Bolivian resident in Rome, told AFP.

The Vatican published drawings made by children in the hospital for Francis, as well as letters from parents asking him to pray for their sick offspring.

Francis, the head of the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to hospital after struggling for several days to read his texts in public.

Jesuit theologian Antonio Spadaro, who is close to Francis, told Italy's Corriere della Sera daily the pope could be in hospital for two to three weeks.

"It is clear that the situation is delicate, but I have not perceived any form of alarmism," he said.

The pope "has an extraordinary vital energy. He is not a person who lets himself go, he is not a resigned man. And that is a very positive element, we have seen that in the past", he said.

The pneumonia is the latest of a series of health issues for the Jesuit, who has undergone hernia and colon surgery since 2021 and uses a wheelchair due to pain in his knee.

The pope has left open the option of resigning if he became unable to carry out his duties.

But in a memoir last year he said it was just a "distant possibility" that would be justified only in the event of "a serious physical impediment".