Pope Francis, who is recovering from pneumonia in both lungs, will be discharged from Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Sunday, his doctors said.
The pontiff, 88, will return home to Casa Santa Marta in Vatican City on “protected discharge”, and he will need to convalesce for two months, Sergio Alfieri, a general surgeon at Gemelli hospital, told reporters.
The health of Francis, who was admitted to hospital on 14 February and diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection and double pneumonia, has been steadily improving over the past two weeks, Alfieri said.
It is unclear at what time the pontiff will be discharged, but the Vatican said earlier he would come to the window of his hospital room after midday prayers on Sunday to give a greeting and blessing. Francis has been seen once since being admitted to hospital, in a photo shared by the Vatican last week in which he was praying in the hospital’s chapel.
He suffered several breathing crises before his doctors said he was no longer in imminent danger, on 10 March. The Vatican said yesterday that his overall health situation remained stable, with slight improvements as he continued respiratory and physical physiotherapy.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, said yesterday the pope is “doing very well” but the high-flow oxygen treatment “dries everything out” and that the pontiff “needs to relearn to speak”.
In early March, the Vatican released a brief audio of Francis thanking well-wishers, with his voice sounding breathless and difficult to understand.
“But his overall physical condition is as it was before,” Fernández said during the presentation of a new book by Francis on poetry.
Fernández added that “a new stage” was opening in the 12-year papacy of Francis and that he expected some surprises from the pontiff when he was discharged from hospital.
After his release, Francis would not immediately be able to meet groups of people, medics said. It remains unclear if an audience with King Charles and Queen Camilla, scheduled on 8 April, will take place.
Despite his health challenges, on some days Francis has continued to lead the Vatican from his hospital room, including approving individuals for sainthood. Last week, he wrote to the editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper reiterating his appeal for peace and disarmament. “We must disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth,” he wrote.
Francis is prone to lung infections because he developed pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed while training to be a priest in his native Argentina.
He has suffered ill health in recent years and has often alluded to resigning if bad health prevents him from doing his job.
Speculation over an imminent resignation was vehemently dismissed last week by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state.
