Pope Francis, Gravely Ill, Remains Alert as Vatican Awaits Outcome

Pope Francis, the 88-year-old leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, remained in critical condition on Sunday at Gemelli Hospital, his body weakened by pneumonia and a relentless lung infection that have now sparked early kidney failure. Yet amid the sterile hum of medical machines, the pontiff’s spirit held firm—he stayed alert, issued a prayerful Angelus statement, and, the Vatican said, even attended Mass from his bedside.

The latest bulletin, released late Sunday, painted a picture of fragile stability. After a harrowing respiratory crisis on Saturday night, Francis has leaned on high flows of supplemental oxygen, with no further episodes reported. Blood tests uncovered new threats: a mild onset of kidney failure, deemed manageable, and a stubbornly low platelet count, vital for clotting, that has stabilized but not improved. “The complexity of the clinical picture,” his doctors warned, “and the wait for drug therapies to take hold, dictate that the prognosis remains reserved.”

For Francis, who has guided the church since 2013 with a reformer’s heart and a pastor’s humility, this ordeal is a stark test. Admitted to Gemelli on February 14, he has battled a trio of infections—bacterial, viral, fungal—raging in his lungs, a vulnerability rooted in the partial lung removal of his youth. Outside the hospital, candlelight vigils flicker, a testament to the prayers pouring in from Buenos Aires to Bombay.

Sunday’s update offered no miracles, only endurance. The Vatican called him “well-oriented,” a phrase that belied the gravity of his state. As Lent unfolds, Francis faces an uncertain road—his frailty a quiet echo of the suffering he has long sought to ease. In Rome, the faithful watch, and wait.

(Article was written with inputs from AP via PTI)