Simona Pettinato is among those who have gathered near the Gemelli Hospital to show their support for Pope Francis. “Prayer moves mountains,” she declared outside the hospital, where Francis has been since February 14 and is being treated for pneumonia. “It helps everyone, and we must have great faith.”
People in Rome and the Vatican are relying on their faith as they cope with the daily anxiety waiting to hear about the pope’s health. Francis’ condition is frequently described by the Vatican as “complex” and the prognosis as “reserved,” meaning that it’s too soon to tell. And while there have been some signs of “slight improvement,” his condition – until Tuesday at least – is still being described as “critical.”
This is Francis’ fourth, and now longest, hospital stay since he became pope in 2013. Everyone in the church’s central administration remains on high alert waiting for news – day and night – of the ailing pontiff.
Reporters and Vatican officials nervously refresh their inboxes awaiting the twice-daily health updates. The first – a quick, succinct update sent early in the morning – outlines how the pope’s night went. Sometimes it provides details on whether he had breakfast. Then, in the evening, a more detailed medical statement is released. Journalists gather in anticipation of the morning and evening updates in the Holy See press office, just off St. Peter’s Square, or at the Gemelli Hospital, a 25-minute drive from the Vatican. Doctors treating the pope – Dr. Luigi Carbone of the Vatican health and hygiene service and Sergio Alfieri, a surgeon who has previously operated on the pope – have provided a media briefing on Francis’ condition. Sometimes the updates spark alarm, other times they are more reassuring. But the overriding feeling is uncertainty.
Up at the hospital, the pope is on the 10th floor in a special suite of rooms, including a chapel. He continues to carry out some “work activities,” assisted by his two personal secretaries, and makes phone calls to the Catholic parish in Gaza.
On the hospital piazza below stands a large statue of John Paul II, the first papal Gemelli patient who made numerous visits. It’s here beneath the statue where people have created a makeshift shrine and leave flowers, candles and balloons for Francis, while others hold a banner which reads: “Today, more than ever, we need you Francesco.”
Alfonso La Femmina is another of those who have made their way to Gemelli. He tells CNN that he continues to pray and hold onto hope “that God may help.”
“When I see the news every morning and every evening that he has slept well, I feel pleased,” he says. “When I hear that he is getting better, even if his condition is stable and the progress is still uncertain, I pray, hoping that he can recover as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, under the dark and cold February skies in St. Peter’s Square, cardinals, bishops, nuns and hundreds of faithful have been gathering since Monday evening to say the rosary for the pontiff. It has echoes of a similar prayer service said for Pope John Paul II when he was seriously ill in 2005. Francis is a popular pope, with many who were already in Rome for vacations or on a pilgrimage as the Catholic Church celebrates its Holy Jubilee year, making their way to St. Peter’s Square amid the pope’s health crisis.
“We wanted to come here because I think it concerns all Christians,” says Richardo Martinez, a tourist from Spain visiting with his family on Wednesday, according to Reuters. “In Spain, everything concerning the health of the Holy Father is being followed very closely, and I think it is a good time to be here and pray for him and ask for him to get better.”
Father Carlos, a priest also from Spain, says: “We are awaiting the medical reports. We have to keep praying. May he recover soon.”
On Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said in a homily from St Patrick’s Cathedral that the pope is “probably close to death.”
And in a memo sent to the priests of New York archdiocese, and seen by CNN, the cardinal’s vicar general said the pope is nearing “the end of his earthly journey” and made suggestions for how they should mark this. There is no evidence that the cardinal has additional or privileged information about Francis’ health.
Francis’ bridge-building pontificate means his influence reaches beyond the Catholic Church. Prayers being said for the pontiff have come from all sorts of places; from the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt – who has a close bond with Francis – to an inter-religious service at a Buddhist temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Yet, as Francis himself has observed, whenever a pope gets ill, the winds of a conclave start to blow. And right now, the Vatican has a pre-conclave feel.
It all comes amid increased fascination in a papal election following the popularity of the movie, “Conclave,” which is up for several Oscars on March 2. The sense of an impending papal election is only intensified by the evening prayer services in the square, which are being led by different cardinals each day. On Wednesday, it will be the turn of Giovanni Battista Re, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job is to oversee the running of a conclave.
But don’t count Francis out just yet. While the pope is physically frail, he remains spiritually and psychologically resilient. And since his hospitalization, he has shown he wants to fight on. Elisabetta Pique, a papal biographer and correspondent for La Argentina’s La Nacion, told CNN that her compatriot is a very spiritual man but also one who is “determined,” “stubborn” and driven by a deep sense of mission.
The Argentinian pope was trained as a Jesuit, a religious order which has a long history of embarking on missionary work in hostile or dangerous territories. He had been working at an intense pace right up until his hospitalization. Antonio Spadaro, a fellow Jesuit and adviser to the pope, said Francis’ mentality is “to keep working while he is alive and die in the trenches.”
From his hospital room, the pope signals he’s still in charge. On Monday, he met Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State, and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the papal chief of staff and announced a consistory (a meeting of the pope and cardinals) to decide sainthood causes at an unspecified date. Incidentally, it was at a consistory in February 2013 that Benedict XVI announced his intention to resign.
Francis also seems aware of the Vatican’s reputation for being opaque about papal health matters. He is behind the daily release of relatively detailed information about his medical condition and, before he received anyone from the Vatican in hospital, met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She, and not the Vatican, then offered the world the update that so many had wanted to hear: the pope was “alert” and cracking jokes. Even in a critical condition, Francis remains politically astute.
Yet the longer the pope is hospitalized, the more speculation grows about a possible papal resignation. Francis wrote a letter in 2013 making provisions should he become incapacitated, a similar move to one taken by many of his recent predecessors, and some wonder whether he will continue as pope if the long-term prognosis means he might be impeded from governing the Catholic Church.
Francis, a master of surprise, is unlikely to have told anyone his plans. And so, the world continues to wait, with a term being used in Rome about these intense days succinctly summing up the feeling of so many: “montagne russe” – a rollercoaster.
