Pope is resting on 10th day of hospitalization after early stages of kidney failure detected – The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Catholics gathered in churches on Sunday for special services dedicated to Pope Francis who remains in a critical condition.
The Vatican No. 2 led faithful in a somber night-time prayer on Monday as Pope Francis continued to battle pneumonia in both lungs at a hospital in Rome.
A group of nuns, priests and students from a Catholic university gathered outside the Gemelli Hospital in Rome on Monday to pray for Pope Francis who is battling pneumonia. (AP Video: Florent Bajrami)
Hundreds of Argentines gathered in a central square in Buenos Aires Monday to pray for Pope Francis’s health and recovery. (AP Video by Cristian Kovadloff)
Pilgrims in the Italian town of Assisi say they are praying for Pope Francis on the 10th day of his hospitalization for a complex lung infection. (AP Video by Chris Warde-Jones)
People attend a rosary prayer service held for the health of Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Catholic worshippers gather during a prayer of the Rosary for Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Catholic worshippers gather during a prayer of the Rosary for Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A parishioner touches an image of Pope Francis during a prayer service for his health outside of the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
People attend a Mass to pray for Pope Francis’ health in Constitution square in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A woman sits in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Nuns pray at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025 where Pope Francis is hospitalized since Friday, Feb. 14. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Nuns pray at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025 where Pope Francis is hospitalized since Friday, Feb. 14. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
People walk outside St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A couple stands in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
People walk outside St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A journalist works next to St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
People walk in St. Peter’s square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)
A Swiss Guard patrols one of the Arco Delle Campane, one of the entrances of the Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)
Chairs are arranged in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis remained in critical condition Monday but showed slight improvement in laboratory tests and resumed some work, the Vatican said, including calling a parish in Gaza City that he has kept in touch with since the war there began.
The Vatican’s evening bulletin was more upbeat than in recent days, as the 88-year-old Francis battles pneumonia in both lungs at Rome’s Gemelli hospital. It was issued shortly before the Vatican’s No. 2 led the faithful in a somber night-time recitation of the Rosary prayer in St. Peter’s Square that evoked the vigils when St. John Paul II was dying.
“For 2,000 years the Christian people have prayed for the pope when he was in danger or sick,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin told the rain-dappled piazza. Standing on the same stage where Francis usually presides, Parolin said ever since Francis had been hospitalized, a chorus of prayers for his recovery had swelled up from around the world.
“Starting this evening, we want to unite ourselves publicly to this prayer here, in his house,” Parolin said, praying that Francis “in this moment of illness and trial” would recover quickly.
The Argentine pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been hospitalized since Feb. 14 and doctors have said his condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease.
But in Monday’s update, they said he hadn’t had any more respiratory crises since Saturday, and the supplemental oxygen he is using continued but with a slightly reduced oxygen flow and concentrations. The slight kidney insufficiency detected on Sunday was not causing alarm at the moment, doctors said, while saying his prognosis remained guarded.
Francis received the Eucharist Monday morning and resumed working in the afternoon.
“In the evening he called the parish priest of the Gaza parish to express his fatherly closeness,” the statement said.
AP correspondent Laurence Brooks reports on Pope Francis’ health, after he spent his 10th day in a Rome hospital.
For over a year, Francis has checked in daily via videocall
Read more: Click here