Top aides hit back against rumour mill swirling around Pope’s condition

Several of Pope Francis’s top allies have hit back against rumours that the pontiff’s health is declining toward the inevitable, as he continues to remain in hospital for treatment of bilateral pneumonia.

They have also defended the flow of information from the Vatican regarding developments in the Pope’s condition, criticising some media for not using such accurate information in their reporting on the state of the pontiff who is said to be “on the path to a full recovery”.

Speaking to Italian television network RAI, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, and president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), said: “We are all worried about the Pope, but the things that are said are exactly what’s happening.”

He added: “The fact that the Pope had breakfast, read the newspapers and received people means that we are on the path to a full recovery, which we hope will happen soon.”

His comments come amid a frenzy of concern – and speculation – over the health of Pope Francis, 88, who was hospitalised on 14 February for treatment of bronchitis. He was later diagnosed with a polymicrobial respiratory infection, and then bilateral pneumonia, with his treatment plan being altered multiple times.

Given his age and medical history, Francis is particularly vulnerable to respiratory illness, having had part of one lung removed due to a serious bout of pneumonia as a young Jesuit. He also suffers from chronic sciatica, a crippling nerve condition that has recently forced him to use a wheelchair or a cane.

The Pope has suffered from bronchitis and respiratory infections with increased frequency in the past two years, and has experienced two falls in recent months, injuring his chin and then his arm.

However, a Vatican statement on the evening of Wednesday, 19 February, said that while his condition is still serious, Pope Francis’s blood tests had shown a “slight improvement” of inflammatory markers, and a subsequent statement the following night said his general clinical status had “slightly improved”.

It is reported that the Pope has spent his days at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital alternating between reading, prayer, work and rest, with the Vatican saying he has also met with his closest collaborators, though without providing names.

On 19 February he also received a private visit from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who in a statement afterward said: “I am very happy to have found him alert and responsive. We joked as always. He has not lost his proverbial sense of humour.”

She later said the Pope had jested about “some outside who prayed for me to go to paradise, but the Lord of the Harvest thought of leaving me here still”.

Vatican sources in recent days have said that despite his complex health condition, the Pope has been sitting up in a chair, has been breathing on his own, and that his heart is in good condition.

He has apparently also been instructed to “not take even the slightest draft” of fresh air as he recovers, especially as temperatures this week have dipped.

These Vatican sources have said that “fake news speaks for itself” regarding the Pope’s health, and that accurate information “is given regularly”.

Speaking from the Non Stop Music event in Italy, Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, prefect emeritus of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture, said of the Pope’s health, “we are seeing a subtle recovery”.

He then referred to the Pope’s early battle as a young man with the illness that claimed part of one lung and how this has influenced him.

“Considering an organism that has been used to fighting for a long time, we can say that its entire life has almost always been in tension,” Ravasi said. “It is therefore a strong organism.”

He added that updated information will be given “minute by minute in a situation that remains complex”, though he also said “it is not a critical situation, as some media have suspected”.

Ravasi admitted that given the Pope’s age, “there was apprehension” about the his current condition, especially after the diagnosis of bilateral pneumonia; however, he added, “It seems that now the general orientation is more positive, considering an overall strong physical structure.”

Addressing media coverage, he said: “That moment of concern is natural, but it was also emphasised in a particular way,” describing how he has even been asked by reporters if the Pope had returned to his Vatican residence in a coffin.

He has obviously denied those rumours and emphasised that “everything is normal”.

Nevertheless, in a recent interview given to Italian radio, Cardinal Ravasi did discuss the issue of whether Pope Francis should or might resign due to his health problems.

Pope Francis himself has alluded to the possibility that if his heath problems became serious enough he would consider resigning. As a result, given the current situation, various Vatican watchers are wondering if that level of seriousness might be getting closer.

Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio Community, which is dedicated to social works and counts Pope Francis as one of its admirers, has hit back against rumours of a potential papal resignation in light of this most recent health scare.

“I don’t see why we should talk about resignation,” Riccardi told Italian media, recalling how once a priest had written to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, the former archbishop of Milan, saying that “in these times the crows are flying back to Rome”.

To that point, Riccardi said, “there are journalistic crows” who are peddling a narrative about a pope who is declining and is currently at death’s door, adding that he personally sympathises with the Pope, who, he said, “deserves solidarity, but also respect for his health and his body”.

Riccardi added that in his view there is “a certain obsession with the Pope’s health, a game of voices, many improvising as analysts of the Pope’s health, always wanting to discover a pessimistic note”.

Though he admitted that Pope Francis could decide to resign in light of this latest health crisis, before adding that the current situation doesn’t appear to warrant it.

“I would say that the resignation is a bit of an obsession that is also returning because this is a pontificate born of the resignation of Benedict XVI,” he said.

“My feeling is that Francis wants to continue his ministry as long as he has the strength to continue it, and we are not at that moment [of not having the strength].”

Photo: An aerial view shows the Obelisco de Buenos Aires illuminated with the image of Pope Francis as he recovers in hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 21 February 2025. (Photo by LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty Images.)

The post Top aides hit back against rumour mill swirling around Pope’s condition first appeared on Catholic Herald.

The post Top aides hit back against rumour mill swirling around Pope’s condition appeared first on Catholic Herald.