Pope Francis shows slight improvement and resumes some work, Vatican says

Pope Francis remained in a critical condition on Monday but showed a slight improvement in laboratory tests and resumed some work, including calling a parish in Gaza City that he has kept in touch with since the war began, the Vatican said.

The Vatican’s evening bulletin was more upbeat than in recent days as the 88-year-old battles pneumonia in both lungs at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

It was issued shortly before the Vatican No 2 led the faithful in a sombre night-time recitation of the Rosary prayer in St Peter’s Square that evoked the vigils when John Paul II was dying.

“For 2,000 years the Christian people have prayed for the pope when he was in danger or sick,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin told people in the piazza.

Standing on the same stage where Francis usually presides, he said ever since Francis had been in hospital, a chorus of prayers for his recovery had swelled up from around the world.

“Starting this evening, we want to unite ourselves publicly to this prayer here, in his house,” Cardinal Parolin said, praying that Francis “in this moment of illness and trial” would recover quickly.

The Argentine pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been in hospital since February 14 and doctors have said his condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease.

But in Monday’s update, they said he had not had any more respiratory crises since Saturday, and the supplemental oxygen he is using continued but with a slightly reduced oxygen flow and concentrations.

The slight kidney insufficiency detected on Sunday was not causing alarm at the moment, doctors said.

Francis received the Eucharist on Monday morning and resumed working in the afternoon.

“In the evening he called the parish priest of the Gaza parish to express his fatherly closeness,” the statement said.

For more than a year, Francis has checked in daily via videocall with the Argentine priest, the Rev Gabriel Romanelli, who leads the Catholic community at the church, which during Israel’s war had served as a shelter for Palestinians.

He had reported hearing from Francis soon after he was taken to hospital, but not since. He had sent Francis a video, and the pope called to thank him, the Vatican said.

Francis was in good spirits, was not in pain and was not receiving artificial nutrition, the Vatican said.

The work he was doing included reading and signing documents, and indeed the Vatican’s daily noon bulletin has included new bishop nominations nearly every day, even though most were decided in advance.

At the Gemelli hospital, the mood was nevertheless grim.

Bishop Claudio Giuliodori presided over an emotional, standing-room-only Mass in the chapel named for John Paul, who was admitted to hospital there many times.

Doctors have warned that the main threat facing Francis is sepsis, a serious infection that can occur as a complication of pneumonia. To date there has been no reference to any onset of sepsis in the medical updates provided by the Vatican.