Pope Francis is awake and resting at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, 10 days after being admitted for a lung infection.
Following a quiet night, the Vatican confirmed on Monday that the 88-year-old pontiff had woken and was continuing with his prescribed therapies.
Francis was in good spirits, was feeding himself, and was not receiving any artificial nutrition, the Vatican said.
Concerns were raised on Sunday when doctors reported that blood tests indicated early kidney failure, but said that the condition was under control.
They added that the Pope’s overall condition remained critical, although he had not experienced any respiratory crises since Saturday.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, is scheduled to lead a public prayer of the Rosary in St. Peter’s Square later on Monday.
A further medical bulletin is expected later in the day.
The Pope is currently receiving high levels of supplemental oxygen.
Doctors have said Francis’ condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. He suffered pleurisy as a young man and had part of one lung removed.
They have warned that the main threat facing Francis is sepsis, a serious infection of the blood 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, including on Sunday.
“The complexity of the clinical picture, and the necessary wait for drug therapies to provide some feedback, dictate that the prognosis remains reserved,” the doctors concluded in the latest medical update.
Monday marks Francis’s 10th day in the hospital, making this equal to the longest hospitalisation of his papacy. He spent 10 days at Rome’s Gemelli hospital in 2021 after he had 33cm of his colon removed.
In New York on Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan acknowledged what church leaders in Rome weren’t saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father”.
