Doctors should be able to determine if Pope Francis’ current treatment is working by “today or tomorrow,” a Vatican source told I.MEDIA on February 21, 2025. “Slight improvements” have been noted over the past two days, but the overall results have yet to be determined. For the time being, no decision has been made regarding a date for his discharge from hospital. He was admitted on February 14.
“The night went well, this morning Pope Francis got up and had breakfast,” the Vatican said this Friday morning, now the eighth day of hospitalization for the 88-year-old pontiff suffering from a polymicrobial respiratory infection and double pneumonia. On Tuesday, a new treatment was started, the effectiveness of which has yet to be determined.
Yesterday evening, after 48 hours of administering this targeted therapy, the Holy See Press Office announced that the Pope’s clinical condition was “improving slightly.” According to our information, these positive signals have yet to be verified in the various parameters of the pontiff’s clinical picture, which the doctors had described at the beginning of the week as “complex.”
According to a Vatican source, the overall results of the treatment must still be closely monitored. “We will know more in the next few days,” she said.
No release date yet
In the meantime, the Vatican is not venturing to make any prognosis on the duration of the hospitalization of the 266th pope. The doctors’ estimates for the next few days “could also be modified along the way,” the source adds.
Since February 14, all of the Pope’s appointments have been canceled. This weekend, he was supposed to celebrate the Jubilee of Deacons and ordain around 20 new deacons. According to our information, it is likely that the pontiff will not lead the Angelus in public, nor live on video.
Pope Francis received Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday, but no other visitors have been announced, apart from his closest associates.
And today we celebrate...