He Pope Franciscowho will leave the hospital this Saturday after three days of treatment by a bronchitismade a surprise visit this Friday to the department of pediatric oncology from the Roman medical center where he is hospitalized.
The 86-year-old Argentine Jesuit took in the afternoon chocolate eggs, rosaries and books to children with cancer, on the eve of the start of Holy Week, reported the Vatican, which released photos and a video of the meeting.
During the visit, of about 30 minutes, baptized a newborn. In the photo he is seen smiling, leaning on a walker, sprinkling with holy water the baby’s head.
The pontiff is in better health and will be discharged on Saturday, for which will be able to preside over the Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican previously indicated.
“The medical team that monitors Pope Francis confirmed his departure on Saturday after examining the results of the tests carried out today,” a Vatican statement said.
“The return of His Holiness to Santa Marta [su residencia en el Vaticano] is scheduled for tomorrow, after the results of the last examsannounced for his part the director of the press office of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni.
“Pope Francis He had pizza for dinner with those who assist him these days hospitalization: doctors, nurses, assistants and Vatican gendarmerie personnel”, Bruni pointed out, with the apparent desire to Convey peace of mind about your state of health.
Francisco receives antibiotic treatment for a infectious bronchitis, that it has produced “the expected effects with a notable improvement,” added the spokesman.
Already on Thursday, after being hospitalized, the Vatican indicated that the pope’s health was improving and that he had “returned to work” after the unexpected alarm.
The Vatican also confirmed the Pope’s participation in the Holy Week celebrationsbeginning with the mass of Palm Sunday scheduled this weekend which marks the start of the celebrations.
As on other occasions and due to the fact that he uses a wheelchair due to his knee pain, he will only preside over the ceremonies, which will be celebrated by cardinals.
A dad with ailments
Francis, who suffers chronic health problems, is hospitalized in the apartment reserved for the popes on the tenth floor of the Gemini university hospital, where John Paul II he convalesced on several occasions during his pontificate (1978-2005).
Francisco underwent “medical checks” on Wednesday after suffering in the previous days “respiratory difficulties” that “revealed a respiratory infection”.
The hospitalization surprised public opinion because on Wednesday Jorge Bergoglio participated with total normality in the traditional general audience in Saint Peter’s Squareduring which he appeared smiling and greeted the faithful from his “popemobile”.
The head of the Catholic Church had already been hospitalized for a ten days in the Gemelli hospital in July 2021, for a colon operation.
He recognized that this intervention left him “sequelae” from anesthesia and that for that reason he gave up knee surgery.
The pains in this joint, which have forced him to cancel several hearings in 2022 already postponing a trip to Africa, fuel conjectures about a eventual resignation.
Francisco has always left open the possibility of emulating his predecessor, Benedict XVI (died 2022), who resigned in 2013. But his messages about this option are ambivalent.
In July 2022 he said that could “step aside” but in February he affirmed that the resignation of a pope “it should not become a fashion” and that this idea “was not on his agenda at the moment.”
The pontiff is constantly attended by a team of doctors and nurses, either in the Vatican or during his travels.