Pope Francis’s situation has improved long enough to be discharged from a hospital in Rome on Sunday and to recover to the Vatican for at least two months, his doctors said on Saturday night.
They added that the case of his pneumonia in both lungs was so severe that he had twice his life at serious risk.
Doctors said the Pope’s condition was stable for the last two weeks and that it had overcome its most dangerous infections, but that it was not completely cured and had to rest for at least two months.
It would require treatment and oxygen, as is normal for patients recovering from pneumonia, before it can resume its normal program, its doctors said. They called that the Pope was avoiding meeting large groups, people with young children and other possible sources of infection.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the leader of the medical team taking care of the Pope, said Pontiff had requested days that he could go home.
“He was very happy,” said Dr. Alfieri.
For weeks, Catholics around the world are praying for the Pope’s recovery and on February 25, the cardinals have led a nightlife with a rustician to St. Peter’s Square that attracts hundreds of faithful every night.
Pope Francis was accepted to the hospital on February 14 with bronchitis, which developed into pneumonia in both lungs, complicated by a microbial infection. Doctors did not stay words when they had a press conference at Gemelli Hospital on February 21, warning that it was not “out of danger” because of his age and chronic pulmonary disease.
For several weeks, Francis remained in critical condition as he experienced an asthmatic respiratory crisis, the initial, mild kidney failure and a bronchial spasm that caused him to inhale his vomiting after a cough. Use non -invasive mechanical ventilation at night, alternating with high -flow oxygen therapy during the day.
On March 10, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had improved long enough to no longer be considered an imminent risk of pneumonia and other infections, but said it would require more days of patient treatment. It began to slowly reduce the use of oxygen therapy.
Last Sunday, the Vatican published the first photo of Pontus since he had entered the hospital and announced on Saturday that Francis may appear on the Balcony of Gemelli to broadcast Angelus’s blessing tomorrow.
Francis was already fragile. He had a part of a lung was removed as a young man, and in recent years he has learned many health problems, using a wheelchair or a cane to move. He was hospitalized with bronchitis in 2023, again a few months later to undergo abdominal surgery for a hernia, associated with colon surgery in 2021.
Francis has often struggled with bronchitis during the winter months, but this had not stopped the Pope from maintaining an exhaustive program in the weeks before his hospitalization, intensified by the opening of Jubilee in 2025, a year of faith, gradient and forgiveness of sins.
