Pope in hospital as Vatican says he's being treated for a respiratory infection

29 March 2023 , 14:41

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Pope Francis celebrates mass on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Image: Corbis via Getty Images)

Pope Francis has been taken to hospital after admitting a condition had returned earlier this year, the Vatican has confirmed.

The Vatican said the 86-year-old was being treated for a respiratory infection at Gemelli hospital.

The pope shad previously spent 10 days at the same hospital in July 2021 following surgery for an intestinal narrowing, when he had 33 centimetres of his colon removed.

He said soon after that he had recovered fully and could eat normally, but in a January 24 interview with The Associated Press said the diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall, had "returned".

However, he also said he was in good shape and that a slight bone fracture in his knee from a fall had healed without surgery and was ready to get on with his agenda.

Pope Francis swings a thurible at the start of Easter Sunday Mass (ANDREAS SOLARO/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

He said: "I’m in good health. For my age, I’m normal. I might die tomorrow, but it’s under control. I’m in good health."

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He also indicated he has no plans to resign, although if he were to step down he reiterated that he would want to be called “bishop emeritus of Rome,” rather than “pope emeritus,” the title given his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

In the interview, he said it was premature to “regularise or regulate” papal retirements because the Vatican had too little experience upon which to draw.

Benedict XVI died on new years eve 2022, after nearly a decade of retirement and was the first pope to step down in nearly 600 years.

He said Benedict’s decision to live in a converted monastery in the Vatican Gardens was a “good intermediate solution”, but said future retired popes might want to choose a different course.

He told AP: “He was still ‘enslaved’ as a pope, no? Of the vision of a pope, of a system. ‘Slave’ in the good sense of the word: in that, he wasn’t completely free, as he would have liked to have returned to his Germany and continued studying theology.”

Rachel Hagan