Pope Francis hospitalized in Rome with bronchitis, says the Vatican | News of religion

The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics admitted to Gemelli Hospital for diagnostic tests and further treatment.

Pope Francis He was admitted to a hospital in Rome for tests and treatment of bronchitis, the Vatican announced, confirming the last threat to the health of 88-year-old Pontiff.

“This morning, at the end of his audience, Pope Francis was admitted to Policlinico Agostino Gemelli for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue his treatment for bronchitis, which is still in hospital environments,” his office said on Friday.

Prior to her hospitalization, Francis still managed to meet with the Vatican officials, as well as with other guests, including a visit to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the statement said.

Francis was diagnosed with bronchitis last Thursday, but he continued to hold a daily audience at his Vatican Hotel, chairman of the common audience and even chaired an outdoor liturgy last Sunday.

However, he conveyed his speeches to read aloud, saying he had breathing problems.

Francis has been the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide since 2013, suffering from flu and other health problems several times in the last two years.

The Argentine Pope, who inherited Benedict XVI, is the second oldest pope in history.

It was removed part of a lung as young and long struggled with health problems, especially Long attacks of acute bronchitis In winter. He uses a wheelchair, walker or cane when moving through his apartment and has recently fell twice, injuring his arm and chin. It was also removed a large short of its large intestine in 2021.

Since his most diagnosis of bronchitis, Francis has appeared bulging, an indication that the drugs he takes to treat pulmonary infection has causes him to keep water.

The Gemeli Hospital in Rome is the same medical facility where the leader of the Catholic Church was hospitalized in June 2023 to perform surgery to remove the tissue of the intestinal scar and restore hernia in the abdominal wall.

A few months earlier, he spent three days in the hospital to get intravenous antibiotics for respiratory infection.

In December of the same year, he had to cancel a visit to Dubai to participate in the Conference on Climate Change in the United Nations, due to another attack of bronchitis.

Francis has a personal doctor, Dr. Roberto Bernabei, who is an internist and geriatric specialist at the Catholic University of the Holy Heart in Rome.

He also has a personal nurse Massimiliano Straits, an employee of the Vatican Health System, who Francis credits for saving his life when stratums diagnosed his intestinal problem in 2021. In 2022 Care. “

Strappetti and Bernabei usually join Francis for his foreign trips.