LAST UPDATE | 3 Mar 2025

POPE FRANCIS HAS had “two episodes of acute respiratory failure”, the Vatican said in its evening update.

It marks a downturn in the pontiff’s health updates following more positives ones over the weekend.

The Vatican has been releasing two health updates per day since Francis entered hospital, a short one in the morning and a more in-depth one in the evening.

In this evening’s statement, the Vatican said the two “episodes” were “caused by significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm”.

As a result, two bronchoscopies were performed – this is a procedure that lets doctors examine lungs and air passages.

This afternoon, non-invasive mechanical ventilation was also resumed.

However, the Vatican said Francis “remained alert, oriented and cooperative throughout”.

It added that the “prognosis remains reserved”.

Francis has so far spent 17 nights in hospital with pneumonia and is said to have “rested well all night”.

After a breathing crisis on Friday, the Vatican had on Saturday reported his condition was “stable”, an assessment it repeated yesterday evening.

The head of the Catholic Church was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on 14 February with bronchitis, which later developed into pneumonia in both lungs.

He had required non-invasive mechanical ventilation – a mask – on Friday and Saturday.

It was no longer required yesterday but was once again needed today.

While other evening updates have mentioned that Francis was working throughout the day, there was no such inclusion in this evening’s update.

Francis had yesterday received Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, and Edgar Pena Parra, a Venezuelan archbishop who is the equivalent of a papal chief of staff.

Francis, who has been pope since March 2013, is being treated in a special suite reserved for pontiffs on the 10th floor of the Gemelli.

The Jesuit, born Jorge Bergoglio, missed his traditional Angelus prayer for a third straight Sunday and the Vatican issued a written text instead.

In it, the pope thanked well-wishers for their prayers, saying: “I feel all your affection and closeness and, at this particular time, I feel as if I am ‘carried’ and supported by all God’s people. Thank you all.”