Pope Francis’ health has continued to improve in the week since he left the hospital after a weekslong stay, the Vatican said Tuesday.
During Francis’ 38-day stay at Policlinico A. Gemelli in Rome, he was treated for pneumonia and other infections. He experienced two episodes — a breathing crisis and a bronchial spasm that caused him to inhale some vomit — so severe that doctors said they did not think that he was going to make it, but survived and was discharged on March 23 to convalesce at his Vatican guesthouse.
On Tuesday, the Vatican said that the pope’s blood tests were normal and that a recent X-ray showed a “slight improvement” in his lungs. Francis still uses oxygen throughout the day but can go without that for brief periods, the Vatican said. Motor and respiratory therapy were also showing results, the Vatican added, saying that Francis’ voice was improving and that he was moving with greater ease.
Francis has not appeared in public since the day he left the hospital and briefly greeted well-wishers from a balcony. That appearance offered a sobering glimpse of the toll that the health crisis had taken on the 88-year-old pontiff. His voice was weak, his breathing strained and he struggled to raise his hands to give a blessing.
When the doctors discharged Francis, they implored him to rest and convalesce for at least two months. So far, it appears he has largely heeded their pleas.
The Vatican said on Tuesday that Francis had not had any visitors since returning to the guesthouse but celebrates Mass with other priests every morning and spends part of the day seated at his desk working.
In the past week, Francis has approved the canonization of Venezuela’s first female saint and the first saint for Papua New Guinea, where he traveled last September on a grueling trip to the Asia-Pacific region. He also has appointed several bishops and offered prayers for the victims of the powerful earthquake in Southeast Asia.
And he has mused on his condition. In his traditional Angelus prayer and blessing on Sunday — a written message in place of his typical delivery overlooking St. Peter’s Square — Francis urged the faithful to experience the Lenten period leading to Easter “as a period of healing.”
“I too am experiencing it this way, in my soul and in my body,” Francis said in written text published on the Vatican website.
