According to the Vatican, Pope Francis was admitted to the hospital with a respiratory ailment. According to the BBC and CNN, the 86-year-old pope will stay “a few days” at a hospital in Rome.
The Pope recently “complained of some breathing problems,” according to a statement from the Vatican’s Matteo Bruni, before going to Policlinico A. Gemelli for “medical exams,” according to CNN.
The spokesman said that the results of the test indicated a respiratory infection (excluding Covid-19 infection) that would need a few days of adequate hospital medical care. Pope Francis is moved by the many letters he has received and thanks everyone for their prayers and closeness.
The pope had his weekly public audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square, according to the reports, before being admitted to the hospital. He was then brought to the hospital for what the Vatican described as “already arranged tests” at the time.
He has subsequently made Thursday available, according to CNN. As the Catholic Church gets ready for one of its major celebrations, Easter, the pope is admitted to the hospital.
According to the BBC, he has many activities planned for Easter, a Palm Sunday Mass this coming weekend, and a trip to Hungary in April.
The Pope told a Spanish newspaper in December that he had written a letter of resignation almost ten years before.
The pope recalled at the time, “I signed it and said: ‘If I should become incapacitated for medical reasons or whatever, here is my resignation.
The Pope, who sometimes uses a wheelchair and had to postpone a trip last year because of knee issues, said to reporters in July that he hadn’t thought about retiring until during a recent six-day trip to Canada, adding that a change in the pope “is not a disaster.”
He remarked at the time, “I either need to preserve myself a bit so that I can serve the Church, or I need to think about the idea of standing away.”
