Pope Francis remains in a critical condition but he was able to resume work activities from his hospital bed, the Vatican said on Monday afternoon, as worries persisted around the pontiff’s kidney and lung problems that have kept him in the hospital for over a week.
“The Holy Father’s clinical condition, though critical, shows slight improvement,” the Vatican said in a statement Monday, adding that throughout the day there were “no episodes of asthmatic respiratory crisis.”
“In the morning he received the Eucharist, while in the afternoon he resumed work activities,” the statement said. “In the evening, he called the pastor of Gaza Parish to express his fatherly closeness.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in an update that doctors, “in view of the complexity of the clinical picture, conservatively do not yet change the prognosis from being guarded.”
Kidney problems that the 88-year-old pontiff had suffered earlier were no longer a problem, according to Bruni.
Earlier on Monday, a Vatican source told NBC News' international partner, Sky News, that Francis was eating normally. Rome's Gemelli Hospital said via Telegram that the night had "passed peacefully," and doctors gave no further update as to whether the pope's health has improved.
Fears have been growing about Francis' condition after he was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 and was later diagnosed with “double pneumonia,” or pneumonia in both lungs. Over the weekend suffered asthma-like symptoms.
During a service on Sunday at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Cardinal Timothy Dolan described Francis as being “in very, very fragile health and probably close to death,” but did not elaborate on how he knew that. Beginning on Monday, the Vatican’s Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin will lead nightly masses with the cardinals of Rome to pray for Francis in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy See Press Office said in a statement.
“We are all very worried,” the pope's cousin, 93-year-old Carla Rabezzana, who lives in Portacomaro, Italy, told the Italian news agency Ansa. “We hope he recovers quickly and overcomes this difficult moment. I follow everything on the news, and I am very anxious.”
