As of: 03/29/2023 9:23 p.m
Knee pain and intestinal problems: Pope Francis has been struggling with health problems for a long time. Now he has to spend several days in a clinic in Rome, according to the Vatican because of a respiratory infection.
Pope Francis is suffering from a respiratory infection and needs to be hospitalized for a few days. This was announced by the spokesman for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, on Wednesday evening. The head of the Catholic Church was taken to Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital in the afternoon.
According to Bruni, the 86-year-old had complained of breathing problems in the past few days. The infection was then found during tests in the hospital. It is not a corona infection, Bruni said. According to media reports, all of the Pope’s appointments for Thursday and Friday have been canceled.
Reporters lined up in front of Gemelli Hospital to report on the Pope’s stay.
Image: AFP
Public appearance in the morning
Francis had held his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square in the morning in front of thousands of believers. After that, a TV interview was actually planned. Francis had to cancel and was taken to the polyclinic in an ambulance instead. A number of TV crews, reporters and photographers stationed themselves there that evening, pointing their cameras at a room on the tenth floor where the pontiff is staying.
In the afternoon, the Vatican initially announced that Francis had gone to the hospital for “pre-planned examinations”. At the beginning of July 2021, the pope had an operation on the intestine in the same clinic.
At that time, the Vatican said it was a planned investigation. The audiences for the two following days were cancelled. Four days later the intestinal operation was announced; the Pope then spent five more days in the hospital. In addition, Francis has been struggling with knee pain for a long time. He has been using a cane or a wheelchair for months.
Speculations about resignation
The physical ailments of the pope had fueled speculation that the head of the church might resign. At the end of July last year, he announced that he wanted to travel less because of his health problems. He must “save his strength a little” or “otherwise think about the possibility of stepping aside”. In February of this year, however, Pope Francis declared that resigning was “not on my plan at the moment”. In the coming month he is to visit Hungary and meet there with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.