{"id":19388,"date":"2025-03-23T18:59:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T18:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/?p=19388"},"modified":"2025-03-23T19:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T19:00:07","slug":"one-senior-cardinal-had-said-on-friday-that-the-pope-would-need-to-relearn-to-speak-after-battling-a-respiratory-infection-for-so-long-it-will-take-time-before-his-voice-returns-to-what-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/23\/one-senior-cardinal-had-said-on-friday-that-the-pope-would-need-to-relearn-to-speak-after-battling-a-respiratory-infection-for-so-long-it-will-take-time-before-his-voice-returns-to-what-it\/","title":{"rendered":"One senior cardinal had said on Friday that the pope would need to “relearn to speak”\u00a0after battling a respiratory infection for so long. “It will take time before his voice returns to what it was before,” said Alfieri."},"content":{"rendered":"

VATICAN CITY, March 22 (Reuters) –\u00a0Pope Francis<\/a>, who has been battling pneumonia for more than five weeks, will be discharged from hospital on Sunday but will need a further two months of rest at the Vatican, the head of his medical team said on Saturday.<\/em>Francis, 88, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 with a severe respiratory infection that became the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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While Francis will return to the Vatican on Sunday, his doctors said it would take “a lot of time” for his aging body to fully heal.<\/em><\/p>\n

They said they had prescribed the pope two months of repose, and had advised him against taking any meetings with large groups, or that require special effort.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The recommendation for a period of convalescence of at least two months is very important,” Sergio Alfieri, head of the pope’s medical team, told the press conference.<\/em><\/p>\n

Francis, who was fighting double pneumonia, suffered four acute attacks of what the Vatican called “respiratory crises” during his time in hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alfieri said that two of the crises had been critical, with the pope “in danger of his life”.<\/em><\/p>\n

The pontiff no longer has pneumonia, but is also not completely healed from a “complex” infection involving several microorganisms, said the doctor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alfieri emphasized that while Francis had used non-invasive ventilation through a mask over his mouth and nose to help breathe, the pope had never been intubated during his stay in hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n

One senior cardinal had said on Friday that the pope would need to “relearn to speak<\/a>” after battling a respiratory infection for so long.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It will take time before his voice returns to what it was before,” said Alfieri.<\/em><\/p>\n

The doctor said the pope, who had gained some weight in recent years after using a wheelchair for knee and back pain, has now lost some weight.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We haven’t weighed him, but he has lost weight, surely,” said Alfieri. “But, let’s say, he had some ‘in reserve,’ so it doesn’t worry us,” he added.<\/em><\/p>\n

POPE TO MAKE PUBLIC APPEARANCE SUNDAY<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Luigi Carbone, vice director of the Vatican’s healthcare service, said the pope would have a nurse caring for him when he returns to his Vatican residence.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Vatican said earlier on Saturday that Francis would make his first public appearance in more than five weeks on Sunday, to offer a blessing from the window of his hospital room before being discharged.<\/em><\/p>\n

The pope has been seen by the public only once during his hospital stay, in\u00a0a photo<\/a>\u00a0the Vatican released last week, showing the pontiff at prayer in a hospital chapel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Francis wants to come to the hospital window around noon on Sunday to give a greeting and blessing, the Vatican said in its brief statement earlier on Saturday.<\/em><\/p>\n

A period of two months rest for Francis could lead to significant changes to the Vatican’s calendar of upcoming events.<\/em><\/p>\n

The pope had been set to meet with Britain’s King Charles\u00a0on April 8<\/a>, and to lead the Vatican’s annual celebrations for Easter on April 20.<\/em><\/p>\n

A spokesperson said on Saturday that the Vatican would decide about those appointments at a later date.<\/em><\/p>\n

(This story has been refiled to remove a reference to Sunday in paragraph 7)<\/em><\/p>\n

Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Additonal reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Timothy Heritage, Alison Williams and Alistair Bell<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VATICAN CITY, March 22 (Reuters) –\u00a0Pope Francis, who has been battling pneumonia for more than five weeks, will be discharged from hospital on Sunday but will need a further two months of rest at the Vatican, the head of his medical team said on Saturday.Francis, 88, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47471,"featured_media":19390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47471"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19388"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19392,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19388\/revisions\/19392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}