Pope Francis shows slight improvement in lab tests, Vatican says

People pray for Pope Francis in front of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, Feb. 23, 2025, where the Pontiff is hospitalized. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

ROME — Pope Francis showed slight improvement in laboratory tests Monday and resumed some work activities, including calling a parish in Gaza City that he has kept in touch with since the war there began, the Vatican said.

The Vatican’s evening bulletin was more upbeat than in recent days. It said the 88-year-old Francis. suffering from pneumonia in both lungs, hadn’t had any more respiratory crises. The slight kidney insufficiency detected on Sunday was of no concern. He is continuing to receive supplemental oxygen and doctors say his prognosis remains guarded.

He received the Eucharist in the morning and resumed working in the afternoon.

“In the evening he called the parish priest of the Gaza parish to express his fatherly closeness,” the statement said.

Earlier Monday, the Vatican had announced the start of nighttime prayers for the pope’s health in St. Peter’s Square, and invited Romans and others to join in, as he battles a complex lung infection and complications. The Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, planned to lead the first prayer on Monday evening.

Francis, who has double pneumonia and the early stages of kidney insufficiency, was awake and in good spirits Monday. He is not in pain and is not receiving artificial nutrition, the Vatican said.

“The night passed well, the pope slept and is resting,” it said. A medical bulletin was expected later in the day.

At the Gemelli hospital, where Francis has been since Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened, Bishop Claudio GiulioDori presided over an emotional, standing-room-only Mass in the chapel named for John Paul; Some of the estimated 200 people who attended were in white doctor’s coats or green surgical scrubs; some knelt in prayer.

“We are very sorry. Pope Francis is a good pope, let’s hope that he makes it. Let us hope,” said a choked-up Filomena Ferraro, who was visiting a relative at Gemelli on Monday. “We are joining him with our prayers but what else can we do?”

Late Sunday, doctors reported that Francis remained in critical condition but that he hadn’t experienced any further respiratory crises since Saturday. Blood tests showed “early, slight kidney insufficiency” that was nevertheless under control.

Francis was receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen and, on Sunday, was alert, responsive and attended Mass. Doctors said his prognosis was guarded.

Doctors have said Francis' condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. They have warned that the main threat facing Francis is sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.

To date there has been no reference to any onset of sepsis in the medical updates provided by the Vatican.

At 10 days, this hospitalization now stands as Francis' longest as Pope. He spent 10 days at Rome’s Gemelli hospital in 2021 after he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed.

In New York on Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan acknowledged what church leaders in Rome weren’t saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father.”

“As our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death,” Dolan said in his homily from the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, though he later told reporters he hoped and prayed that Francis would “bounce back.”

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Article written by Nicole Winfield and Trisha Thomas, The Associated Press