Expert expects the Pope to be discharged from hospital soon

Rome - Francis, who has been suffering from severe pneumonia, has been hospitalised for three and a half weeks. Now his condition is gradually improving. Will the Pope return to the Vatican soon?

Published on 11.03.2025 at 11:41 –

Italy's leading geriatrician Dario Leosco expects Pope Francis to be discharged from hospital soon. He told the newspaper "La Repubblica" (Tuesday) that the improved prognosis of the doctors treating him since Monday is promising.

The chairman of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics assumes that a decision will be made in a few days as to when the head of the Church can leave the hospital again. "It is not good for an elderly person to stay in hospital for so long, even if better monitoring is possible there," said Leosco. He believes it would be advisable to transfer him back to the Vatican as soon as possible.

Francis has been in the Gemelli Clinic in Rome since 14 February due to a complicated respiratory illness with bilateral pneumonia. After several life-threatening respiratory crises in the first few weeks - the most recent of which occurred on 3 March - his condition has recently stabilised and improved. On Monday, doctors announced that Francis was no longer in immediate danger of death. (KNA)