Pope Francis was admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Friday morning for “diagnostic investigations” and “to continue his treatment for bronchitis in a hospital setting “, the Vatican Press said in a statement.
The Pontiff was admitted after a morning of work and audiences at Casa Santa Marta, the building where he lives in Vatican City. Sources close to his entourage do not rule out a hospitalization of up to five days.
After the motorcade took him to the Agostino Gemelli polyclinic, numerous vehicles with the SCV (Vatican City State) license plate were seen making stops at the hospital on via Trionfale, as an aide was spotted bringing a number of bags and folders from a car into the hospital. The security arrangements inside the facility are very light, with a few Vatican gendarmes stationed on the various floors, and of course, the security cordon around the Pope’s all-white room.
Pope Francis, who turned 88 in December, has been unwell since at least ten days ago. Already last Wednesday, the Pope had delegated the reading of texts during Mass due to bronchitis, and the same happened on last Sunday’s Mass at St. Peter’s for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces. He seemed particularly fatigued when he moved, with assistance, from the wheelchair he now regularly uses, to the papal throne. His face is swollen, a typical effect of a cortisone treatment. “I’m sick, I have bronchitis, I can’t go out,” he said as he received the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris at Santa Marta on Monday.
Bronchitis is a recurring ailment for the Pope and became more acute last week. At the Feb. 5 general audience he renounced delivering the catechesis, entrusting it to a collaborator, and did the same on Wednesday, Feb. 12. On Sunday, Feb. 9, he had interrupted a celebration, saying, “I have difficulty breathing.” Francis has continued his daily schedule, but since Saturday has begun holding audiences in Santa Marta rather than in the apostolic palace.
