Pope has respiratory tract infection, is in fair condition and running mild fever, Vatican says

ROME — Pope Francis was hospitalized Friday after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened and was receiving drug therapy for a respiratory tract infection, the Vatican said. It was the latest setback to the 88-year-old's pontiff's health that forced him to cancel his agenda through Monday at least.

Francis was serene, in good spirits and had read some newspapers after arriving at Rome's Gemelli hospital after presiding over his morning audiences, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

In an evening bulletin, the Vatican said preliminary tests showed Francis had a respiratory tract infection, was running a mild fever and was in ''fair'' condition at Gemelli where he was undergoing drug therapy.

Francis has complained of breathing trouble and was diagnosed with bronchitis Feb. 6, but had continued to hold daily audiences in his Vatican hotel suite. He had presided at an outdoor Mass on Sunday and attended his general audience Wednesday. But he has been handing off his speeches for an aide to read aloud, saying he was having trouble breathing.

On Friday, he appeared bloated and pale during the handful of audiences he held before going to the hospital. The bloating appeared to indicate that the medication he was taking to help treat the lung infection was making him retain water.

Christopher Lamb, CNN's Vatican correspondent, saw Francis at the beginning of an audience Friday with CNN head Mark Thompson, and said the pope was mentally alert but struggling to speak for extended periods due to breathing difficulties.

Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has long battled health problems, especially bouts of acute bronchitis in winter. He uses a wheelchair, walker or cane when moving around his apartment and recently fell twice, hurting his arm and chin.

Francis is being treated at Rome's Gemelli hospital, where he was last admitted in June 2023 to have surgery to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in the abdominal wall. A few months before that, he spent three days in Gemelli to receive intravenous antibiotics for a respiratory infection.

He later revealed that he had been rushed to the hospital March 29, 2023 after spiking a high fever and feeling a sharp pain in his chest. He said he was diagnosed with what he said was ''an acute and strong pneumonia, in the lower part of the lungs.''

The Vatican said Francis was admitted to Gemelli after his Friday audiences. In addition to regular Vatican officials and Thompson, the pope met Friday morning with the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico.

"This morning, at the end of the audiences, Pope Francis will be admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue in a hospital setting treatment for bronchitis that is still ongoing," a Vatican statement said.

No details were given about the duration of Francis' hospitalization, but the Vatican later announced the pope was canceling his participation in Holy Year events through Monday.

The pope had a busy weekend agenda planned, including an audience with artists in town for the Jubilee on Saturday, a Mass for them on Sunday and a trip to Rome's famed Cinecitta studios on Monday. While a Vatican cardinal will preside over the Mass in Francis' place, the Vatican said the other events were canceled ''due to the impossibility of the pope to participate.''

At Gemelli, where popes enjoy a private suite on the hospital's 10th floor, passers-by were concerned but hopeful. Votive candles, including some featuring Francis' photo, surrounded the statue of St. John Paul II that greets visitors at the hospital entrance.

''I wish with all my heart that he will get better because these awful illnesses, you don't wish them on anyone," said Nino Davi, who himself was receiving treatment at Gemelli and had arrived earlier Friday from Palermo, Sicily. "So I wish with all my heart that he gets better.''

The Vatican announcement, delivered ahead of Francis' hospitalization, came in sharp contrast to the way it announced his 2023 hospitalization that caused confusion.

Initially, the Vatican had said he had gone in for scheduled tests, but the pontiff later revealed the situation was far more urgent and that he had been rushed to the hospital where pneumonia was diagnosed. He was put on intravenous antibiotics and was released April 1, quipping as he left that he was ''still alive.''

''Thank God I can tell the story, because the organism, the body, responded well to the treatment,'' he later told reporters.

Francis spent 10 days at the same hospital in July 2021 following intestinal surgery for a bowel narrowing. He credited his personal nurse then with saving his life for having insisted he get the problem checked out.

It wasn't the first time he credited a nurse with saving his life. Francis recounted his near-death experience with his youthful lung infection in his recent autobiographies ''Hope'' and ''Life,'' in which he credited his survival to a nurse, an Italian nun named Sister Cornelia Caraglio.

''She was an experienced, cultured woman who had worked as a teacher in Greece, and she quickly realized the seriousness of my situation: She called the specialist, who drained one and a half liters of fluid from my lungs. It began a slow and unsteady climb back from the brink between life and death,'' he recalled in ''Hope.''

It was she who, after the doctor prescribed a certain dose of penicillin and streptomycin, ordered that it be doubled, he recalled.

''She had intuition and practical experience, and certainly no lack of courage," he recalled. "My companions came from the seminary to visit me; some also gave me their blood for transfusions. Gradually the fevers decided to leave me, and the light began to return.''

Francis survived, but during the course of his treatment he had to have the upper lobe of his right lung removed after it developed three cysts.

''The surgical procedure used the techniques of the day: You can imagine the incisions they made, and how I suffered,'' he said in ''Life.''

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Visual journalist Paolo Lucariello contributed.

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