Pope Francis remains in critical condition on Sunday and blood tests show early kidney failure but he is alert, the Vatican said, as the 88-year-old pontiff battles pneumonia and a complex lung infection.
In a late update, the Vatican said Francis had not had any more respiratory crises since Saturday night but was still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen. “The condition of the Holy Father remains critical; however, since last night he has not experienced further respiratory crises,” the Vatican said.
Some blood tests showed “initial, mild, kidney failure”, but doctors said it was under control.
The decreased platelet count, necessary for clotting, that was first detected on Saturday was stable.
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“The complexity of the clinical picture, and the necessary wait for drug therapies to provide some feedback, dictate that the prognosis remains reserved,” the Vatican said.
In a written Sunday mass homily, the pope said he was “confidently” continuing his hospitalisation and carrying on with the necessary treatment.
“Rest is also part of the therapy!” the pope wrote in his homily text released by the Holy See press office. “I ask you to pray for me,” he concluded in the message that was written in “recent days”.
“I sincerely thank the doctors and health workers of this hospital for the attention they are showing me and the dedication with which they carry out their service among the sick,” he added.
In New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan admitted what church leaders in Rome were not saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father”. “As our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death,” Cardinal Dolan said at St Patrick’s Cathedral, without saying if he had independent information about the pope’s condition.
“The pope gets worse,” Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper said in its Sunday edition, while La Repubblica described it as the “darkest day” at the Vatican.
There is no provision in canon law for what to do if a pope becomes incapacitated. Pope Francis has said he has written a letter of resignation that would be invoked if he were medically incapable of making such a decision.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, a senior Vatican official, told participants at a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday morning they should make their prayers for Francis “stronger and more intense”.
The Diocese of Rome, which the pope leads, announced a special Mass for Sunday evening to pray for Francis, so that he will have “the strength necessary to get through this moment of trial”.
Outside Gemelli hospital, groups of people gathered to pray near a statue of the late pope John Paul II, who was treated at the facility many times during his long papacy.
In addition to a complex lung infection, Pope Francis also received blood transfusions after tests showed a condition associated with anaemia, the Vatican said.
But doctors warned the main threat facing Francis would be the onset of sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.
“He is not out of danger,” said his personal physician, Dr Luigi Carbone. “So like all fragile patients I say they are always on the golden scale: In other words, it takes very little to become unbalanced.”
Dr Sergio Alfieri, the head of medicine and surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, also said the biggest threat facing Francis was sepsis.
“Sepsis, with his respiratory problems and his age, would be really difficult to get out of,” Dr Alfieri told a news conference. “The English say ‘knock on wood’, we say ‘touch iron’. Everyone touch what they want,” he said as he tapped the microphone. “But this is the real risk in these cases: that these germs pass to the bloodstream.”
“He knows he’s in danger,” Dr Alfieri added. “And he told us to relay that.” – Agencies
