Pope Francis ‘alert’ after respiratory failure, Vatican says

The Vatican said that Pope Francis is alert after he was exposed to two episodes of “sharp respiratory failure” on Monday afternoon.

He said an update from the Apostolic Chair, although he said he was awake all the time.

The Vatican said that the 88 -year -old has resumed the use of oxygen and ventilation mask to help breathe, but he is still “alert, focused and cooperative.”

This is now the third dangerous contraction since the 88 -year -old Pope was accepted to the hospital 18 days before pneumonia.

The Vatican said that Pope Francis had suffered from a “isolated” breathing crisis.

Updates from the Apostolic Chair stated that he responded well to treat oxygen, as Vatican officials said on Sunday that the Pope no longer requires “non -invasive mechanical ventilation, only the treatment of high -flow oxygen.”

After the two episodes, Pope Francis resumed this mechanical ventilation.

His illness means that Pope Francis was unable to deliver Angelos prayer in person personally For three weeks in a row, with the Vatican publishing his written comments instead.

The officials said that the text, which was sent from the hospital room in Rome, had written “in the past few days.” In that, the Pope thanked the people for their prayers and thanked his medical team for his care.

The procession and Mass will also be missed on Wednesday, which represents the first day of the big fasting, a six -week period leading to Easter.

Hundreds of Catholics gathered abroad in St. Peter’s Square on Monday in an eighth evening to pray for the health of the Pope, where many carry the rosary grains while they were heading across the gravel towards the basilica.

The crowd, a mixture of priests and nuns, was based in Rome and Catholic pilgrims here for a year of Jubilee, led by the American Cardinal.

“I came every night to pray, but this night I am very anxious,” Javier, a Roman priest, expressed the feelings of many in the arena. “We still have hope, but it doesn’t look good.”

“It seems bad, and this is a shame because we really love Francis,” Patricia, Spanish Catholicism from Toledo, told BBC.

She was following prayers with her husband and young daughter.

“The church doors really opened to many, like gay. I think they will search for a more conservative door after that, to stop the change.”

Catholics also visits the Gemili Hospital in Rome to pray for him – hoping to come to the window, as happened in the past.

But although the Vatican recently described the Pope’s condition as stable, he is still very sick so that the crowd does not live below.

The Pope was accepted to the hospital on February 14th After trying breathing difficulties for several days.

He was first treated for bronchitis before diagnosing pneumonia in each of the lungs.

The ink is especially vulnerable to pneumonia, which is an infection of the lungs that can be caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi, after contracting two western – inflammation in the lungs – when he was young and had a partial lung removal.

Sources of the Vatican stress, as they did all the time, that the Pope’s condition remains complicated – his doctors are still cautious – and it is not dangerous.