(Article updated Feb. 18, 1400 hrs)
By Cindy Woden, Catholic News Service
[Vatican City – CNS] – After undergoing a CT scan Feb. 18, Pope Francis was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia, the Vatican said.
“The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon,” the Vatican bulletin said, “demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy.”
“Laboratory tests, chest X-rays and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture,” the evening bulletin said.
Doctors had said the day before that tests revealed a “poly-microbial infection” of the 88-year-old pope’s respiratory system, meaning it is caused by a virus-bacteria combination.
The infection, along with the “bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis,” which the pope suffers from after years of respiratory problems and repeated bouts of bronchitis, “required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy,” it said, which made “therapeutic treatment more complex.”
Still, the statement said, “Pope Francis is in good spirits. This morning he received the Eucharist, and throughout the day he alternated rest with prayer and reading texts.”
Pope Francis thanked people “for the closeness he feels at this time and asks, with a grateful heart, that we continue to pray for him,” the press office said.
Earlier in the day, the Vatican had announced that “due to the Holy Father’s health condition,” his appointments had been cancelled through Feb. 22. In addition, the note said, “Pope Francis has delegated Archbishop Rino Fisichella,” pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization and chief organizer of the Holy Year 2025, to celebrate the Mass and ordinations of permanent deacons Feb. 23.
Pope Francis was hospitalized Feb. 14 after more than a week of suffering from bronchitis and difficulty breathing.
A source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said Feb. 18 that the pope was breathing on his own without the need for supplemental oxygen.
A get-well drawing for Pope Francis is labelled, “A greeting from the children of the pediatric oncology ward,” which is located on the 10th floor of Rome’s Gemelli hospital next to the suite of rooms where the pope is being treated for what doctors said Feb. 18, 2025, was a case of double pneumonia. (CNS photo/Holy See Press Office)
A statue of St. John Paul II stands outside the Gemelli hospital, which the Polish pontiff helped make known around the world because of multiple stays there, particularly after a would-be assassin shot him in May 1981.
As Pope Francis is being treated on the hospital’s 10th floor, in the same suite of rooms St. John Paul and his entourage would use, people are leaving flowers, cards and lighted votive candles at the statue.
The Vatican had announced earlier that the pope would not be holding his weekly general audience Feb. 19.
Earlier updates
Italian newspapers reported Feb. 17 that Pope Francis had an aide phone Holy Family Parish in Gaza his first two nights in the hospital to continue to check on the priests, religious and hundreds of families taking shelter there. The pope has been calling the parish every evening for months.
“The pope called us Friday and Saturday; he was in a good mood, his voice a little tired, but he wanted to know how we were,” said an unnamed official at the parish who spoke to the Italian TGcom24 television station. “An aide handed him the phone and he was able to talk to us.”
However, the official said, on Feb. 16 “he rested, and we knew he wouldn’t call.”
Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of the parish, later told Vatican News, “We heard his voice. It is true, he is more tired. He himself said, ‘I have to take care of myself.'”
Then on Feb. 16, “Pope Francis sent a written message to my cellphone,” Romanelli told Vatican News. Parishioners knew the pope would not call, but they did not expect the message, which thanked parishioners for their prayers and conveyed his blessing.
The pope, who underwent surgery in 1957 to remove part of one of his lungs after suffering a severe respiratory infection, has been susceptible to colds and bouts of bronchitis.
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Beginning with his weekly general audience Feb. 5, Pope Francis had an aide read the bulk of his homilies and prepared speeches at public Masses and audiences.
“It is difficult for me to speak,” he explained to visitors at the audience Feb. 5 before handing off his text.
At Mass Feb. 9 for the Jubilee of the Armed Services, Police and Security Personnel, he apologized, saying he was having “difficulty breathing.”
At his general audience Feb. 12, he apologized for not delivering the main talk himself, saying it was “because I still can’t with my bronchitis. I hope next time I can.”
But on all those public occasions, he took the microphone to urge prayers for peace and to give his blessing.
A statue of St. John Paul II stands outside the main entrance of Rome’s Gemelli hospital Feb. 18, 2025. Pope Francis has been an inpatient at the hospital since Feb. 14. (Photo by Pablo Esparza, CNS)
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© OSV News / Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. 2025 – from CNS Vatican bureau, used with permission.
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