Pope Francis personally thanked the health care workers and medical staff who cared for him in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for 38 days while he recovered from respiratory infections.
Health
As Pope Francis continues his recovery at the Vatican, he is very slowly beginning to get back to his old routine of meeting with top Vatican officials, the Vatican press office said.
During his second week back at the Vatican after a long hospitalization, Pope Francis continued to follow his doctors’ orders to stay home, avoid visitors, and keep up with respiratory and physical therapy, the Vatican press office said.
In his last written message from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital before returning to the Vatican, Pope Francis greeted bishops and the faithful from the Archdiocese of Naples on their Holy Year pilgrimage.
Pope Francis spent the night without a breathing mask, the Vatican press office said March 18, indicating that his need for supplemental oxygen continues to diminish.
For the first time since Pope Francis was hospitalized in mid-February, the Vatican press office released a photograph of him March 16; the image shows him concelebrating Mass that morning in the chapel of his suite of rooms at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
Pope Francis spent the 12th anniversary of his election to the papacy undergoing physiotherapy at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, but he was well enough to celebrate it in little ways.
Pope Francis’ condition continues to be stable and a chest x-ray “confirmed the improvements recorded in the previous days,” his doctors said, but without saying his double pneumonia had cleared up completely.
As Pope Francis prepared to spend the 12th anniversary of his election at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, people at the Vatican and around the world were responding to his most frequent personal request.
By Carol GlatzCatholic News Service VATICAN CITY — As Pope Francis’ condition remains stable, which is a sign of continued improvement,…