According to people close to the veteran, Pope Francis was admitted to the hospital last week for the same illness that caused him to become ill in 2023, but this time he doesn’t think he’ll be as fortunate. The 88-year-old was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday last week (February 14) with bronchitis, a respiratory infection, and was later diagnosed with pneumonia in both of his lungs.

“Pneumonia is inflammation and fluid in your lungs caused by a bacterial, viral, or fungal infection,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. In addition to making breathing difficult, it can result in fever and coughing up crimson, green, or yellow mucus.

Additionally, it states that “if left untreated, especially if you have an underlying health condition,” pneumonia can be fatal. Thankfully, it is recognised that baby is breathing on his own despite the diagnosis.

Politico said that the head of the Catholic Church has been “suffering from intense pain and has privately expressed certainty he won’t make it this time,” according to two persons who were supposedly aware of the situation.

However, a third source reportedly told the US-based website that Francis, who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s Flores neighbourhood, is only following “doctor’s orders.”

On Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni paid the Pope a visit and emphasised that he was healthy enough to joke about. “I’m glad to have found him responsive and attentive.

As usual, we made jokes. “He still has a good sense of humour,” she clarified. Today, February 21, the Vatican released a statement that said, “The night went well, and this morning Pope Francis got up and had breakfast.”

The Vatican maintained on Wednesday that the Pope was recovering, despite reports from people close to him suggesting otherwise. They added: “The blood tests, evaluated by the medical staff, show a slight improvement, particularly in inflammatory indices.” “Pope Francis has had a restful night and this morning, got out of bed and had breakfast in an armchair,” the Vatican wrote on Thursday, February 20.

Pope Francis greets people at the end of the weekly general audience on February 12 – just two days before he was admitted to hospital (FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)
Francis was admitted to Gemelli Hospital in March 2023 with acute bronchitis, so this is not the first time he has been hospitalised with a respiratory ailment.

“I am still alive,” he declared to the public after being released from the hospital.

Twelve years ago, in March 2013, Pope Francis was chosen, making him the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European elected in almost 1,300 years.