Adedokun Waliyu 
The head of the Catholic Church has been in Rome’s Gemelli hospital since February 14 for treatment of double pneumonia in both lungs.
Francis had suffered Monday “two episodes of acute respiratory failure”, the Vatican said, his third breathing crisis since February 22.
“Today the clinical conditions of the Holy Father remained stable. He did not present episodes of respiratory failure or bronchospasm,” the Vatican said in its regular evening update Tuesday.
Francis, born Jorge Bergoglio in Argentina, had no fever and was “alert” and cooperating with his treatment, the Vatican said, but as in previous days it said the prognosis “remains reserved”, an indication that doctors cannot predict the likely outcome.
On Tuesday morning, a Vatican spokesman said Francis had switched from an oxygen mask to high-flow oxygen delivered through a cannula, a plastic tube inserted through the nostrils.
But “tonight, as planned, non-invasive mechanical ventilation will be resumed until tomorrow morning”, the statement said, referring to the mask.
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who had part of a lung removed as a young man, spent the day in prayer and rest, it added.
Francis had been breathless and struggled to read his texts in the days leading up to his admission to the Gemelli hospital, which has a special papal suite on the 10th floor.
On February 22, he suffered a “prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis”, followed on February 28 by “an isolated crisis of bronchospasm” — a tightening of the muscles that line the airways in the lungs.
Then on Monday, he “experienced two episodes of acute respiratory failure, caused by a significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm”, according to the Vatican.
Acute respiratory failure, which can be life-threatening, occurs when the lungs cannot pass enough oxygen into the blood or when carbon dioxide builds up in the body.
Medical experts said Francis’s continued stay in hospital and the repeated crises were alarming.
“At 88 years old, being in the hospital for two weeks and having repeated episodes of respiratory discomfort is a very bad sign,” Bruno Crestani, head of the pulmonology department at the Bichat hospital in Paris, told AFP.
Herve Pegliasco, head of pulmonology at the European Hospital in Marseille, added that with double pneumonia, “there is the issue of exhaustion, because he is forced to make much more effort to breathe”.
The Vatican said Monday that his latest crisis had required two separate bronchoscopies, where doctors look into the air passages using a small camera at the base of a flexible tube.
Francis has been working during his time in hospital, talking on the telephone and receiving some officials, according to Vatican sources.
No visits were planned for Tuesday, the Vatican press office said.
Francis has not been seen in public for almost three weeks and the last photos taken of him were from his private audiences on the morning of his admission to hospital.
The Argentine missed his traditional Angelus prayer for a third straight Sunday and the Vatican issued a written text instead.
In it, the pope thanked well-wishers around the world who have been holding prayers for his recovery, including outside the hospital and every evening at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
“I feel all your affection and closeness and, at this particular time, I feel as if I am ‘carried’ and supported by all God’s people. Thank you all,” he said.
Francis has suffered numerous health issues in recent years, including colon surgery in 2021 and a hernia operation in 2023, and uses a wheelchair due to hip and knee pain.
He has always left open the option of resigning if his health declined, following the example set by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, but had repeatedly dismissed the idea before his admission to hospital.
