Pope Francis hospitalized in Rome with a respiratory infection | world

Pope Francis, 86, was taken to a hospital in Rome on Wednesday for treatment of a respiratory infection. According to the Vatican, the pope has complained of breathing difficulties in recent days and has tested negative for Covid-19.

The Vatican had said earlier that the pope had been taken for tests and would likely spend the night in hospital.

And the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera” published an article stating that the Pope arrived by ambulance, at the end of the morning, after suffering from a heart condition and lung pain. The newspaper attributed the information to sources in the hospital where Pope Jamili was transferred.

Also according to the newspaper, before feeling ill, the Pope attended a public audience in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, and then went home.

Pope Francis celebrated 10 years in the papacy in March. On Wednesday morning he attended the general public in St. Peter’s Square, appearing smiling as he greeted the faithful in his “cart”.

But according to photographers from the AFP news agency, he was moving with difficulty and appeared to be in great pain.

Francisco, who has been using a wheelchair since May 2022 due to pain in his right knee, spent 10 days in Gemelli Hospital in July 2021 for a colon operation.

Pope later explained that this operation left him with sequelae, and that he had decided to rule out knee surgery.

He was already known to suffer from chronic hip pain which forces him to walk with a limp, which is why he had to forgo formal ceremonies on some occasions.

Gemelli Hospital is the medical center where Pope John Paul II was hospitalized and where a benign colon tumor was removed in 1992.

In interviews in recent months, the pope has raised the possibility of resigning, as his predecessor Benedict XVI did in 2013. Benedict died at the end of 2022.

Last July, Francisco admitted that he could no longer travel at the same speed as before, and even stated that he could leave. In February, he said that the pope’s resignation should not become fashionable and that this idea is not currently on his agenda.

For a year, Francisco had a personal health assistant, a nurse, who was with him permanently.

The health of popes has always been a matter reserved for the Vatican and generally kept secret.

Argentine physician and journalist Nelson Castro recently presented a book in Rome on the health of popes and the ailments they have suffered from since Leo XIII and he spoke privately about it with Francis.

He told Castro he made a full recovery and hasn’t felt limited since.

The Pope also admitted that when he was living in Argentina, he treated back pain with acupuncture, that he had suffered from gallstones, and that, in 2004, he had a temporary heart problem caused by a slight narrowing of an artery.