ROME — The Vatican announced Monday afternoon Pope Francis’ hospital stay would be extended for an indefinite period of time, citing a “complex” clinical condition due to an infection of the respiratory tract.
The results of the investigations carried out in past days have shown a “polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract” that has led to a “further modification of therapy,” the Vatican Press Office said in a statement.
“All the investigations carried out to date indicate a complex clinical condition that will require an adequate hospital stay,” it added.
As Breitbart News reported, last Friday the pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital to be treated for persistent bronchitis in a proper medical environment, where he could also undergo some “necessary diagnostic tests.”
Doctors have advised Francis to observe “total rest” to facilitate his full recovery, which resulted in the cancellation of his scheduled Jubilee Year events over these past days, notably the Jubilee for Artists.
While the Vatican has not said how long the 88-year-old pontiff’s hospital stay is expected to last, it announced Monday that his general audience slated for this Wednesday, February 19, had been cancelled.
A candle with a portrait of Pope Francis is set at the bottom of a statue of Pope John Paul II at the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalised for tests and treatment for bronchitis, in Rome on February 17, 2025. (TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images)
On Tuesday, the Vatican further announced the cancellation of the pope’s Jubilee Audience for Saturday, February 22, suggesting that Francis’ hospital stay will exceed one week.
The pope has suffered increasing regular health issues in recent years, many of them concerning respiratory ailments, including bouts of bronchitis. He has suffered from lung-related issues for much of his life and had part of one lung removed when he was a young man, following a case of severe pneumonia.
He underwent a similar bronchial health scare in 2023, spending three nights in the hospital after having been rushed there in an ambulance. On that occasion, he had complained of breathing difficulties and pains in his chest.
As the pope was leaving the hospital, a reporter asked him how he was doing, to which Francis quipped, “I’m still alive.”
In July 2021, Francis underwent intestinal surgery for diverticular stenosis and had 13 inches of his colon removed. On that occasion, the pope was also put under general anesthesia, with a team of ten doctors and experts in attendance.
Despite his medical issues Francis has kept up a busy calendar of events and travel, and last September visited four countries in the Asia Pacific over a 12-day period. This was the longest trip of his pontificate and the most continuous time he has spent away from the Vatican since his election.
Francis has sat in the chair of Peter since 2013, when he was elected as the first pope from Latin America and the first from the Jesuit order, founded by the Spaniard Saint Ignatius Loyola.
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