Pope Francis will be hospitalized for medical tests

Pope Francis will be hospitalized to treat his bronchitis and undergo some necessary diagnostic tests, the Vatican said on Friday when confirming the last threat to the health of the Argentine pontiff, 88.

Since he was diagnosed with bronchitis last Thursday, the Pope has continued with his daily audiences in his Vatican hotel suite in which he lives and presided over general audiences and even an outdoor mass on Sunday. However, he has delegated his speeches in an assistant stating that he had problems breathing.

Francisco, who was removed from a lung when he was young, has been suffering from health problems, especially prolonged episodes of acute bronchitis in winter. Use wheelchair, walker or cane to move through his apartment and recently fell twice, hurting his arm and chin.

Since his diagnosis, Francisco has appeared more swollen, suggesting that the medication he was taking to treat lung infection was causing fluid retention.

The Pope will enter the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, where he was last hospitalized in June 2023 to undergo surgery in which he was removed from intestinal scar tissue and repaired a hernia on the abdominal wall. A few months before, three days had passed in the center to receive intravenous antibiotics due to a respiratory infection.

The Vatican explained in a statement that the Pontiff will enter at the end of his audiences on Friday. In addition to officials from the Holy See, the Pope met on Friday morning with the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, and with the director of CNN, Mark Thompson.

«This morning, at the end of the audiences, Pope Francis will be admitted in the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue in a hospital environment the treatment for bronchitis that is still ongoing,» the note explained.