VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis marked a month in hospital Friday, with football players sending him messages of support for his recovery from pneumonia, including the captain of his favorite team, San Lorenzo.
\nFrancis, 88, has been in Rome\u2019s Gemelli hospital since February 14 and has suffered a series of breathing crises, with doctors initially warning his life was at risk.
\nWhile the head of the Catholic Church was declared out of imminent danger earlier this week, the Vatican has yet to give an indication as to how long his recovery might take, or when he might return home.
\n\u201cDear Pope Francis, from here, from your home, from your club, from your beloved San Lorenzo, we send you a big hug,\u201d team captain Iker Muniain said in a video posted Friday.
\nThe Argentine pope loves football and has long supported the San Lorenzo club in Buenos Aires, where he went to watch matches with his father as a boy.
\n\u201cWe wish you a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing you here as soon as possible. A big hug, bye!\u201d Muniain said, standing on a pitch wearing the team\u2019s red and blue kit.
\nMuniain\u2019s message was posted on the Instagram page of We Play For Peace, a sporting and peace initiative supported by the pope.
\nOther messages included thoughts and prayers from Brazilian player Neymar \u2014 who sent Francis \u201cmuch strength at this moment\u201d \u2014 and from Croatian Ivan Rakitic and Italian Ciro Ferrara.
\nIn another sporting show of support, the organizers of Rome\u2019s marathon said the 30,000 participants would observe 42 seconds of silence \u2014 one per kilometer \u2014 for the pope ahead of Sunday\u2019s race.
\nFrancis was \u201cstable\u201d Friday, the Vatican press office said, after passing a \u201cquiet night\u201d on the 10th floor of the Rome hospital that has a suite reserved for pontiffs.
\nAlthough he is no longer in critical condition, the pope is still receiving respiratory assistance through a nasal cannula during the day and an oxygen mask at night.
\nOn Friday he joined prayer and meditation services at the Vatican via video link, without being seen, as in previous days.
\nHe also did some physiotherapy, the press office said.
\nMeanwhile the Vatican\u2019s diplomatic corps took part in a mass for Francis led by Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican\u2019s Secretary of State.
\nUkraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky published a message on X saying he had spoken to Parolin and \u201cwished Pope Francis a speedy recovery.\u201d
\nFrancis marked 12 years of his papacy on Thursday, celebrating with a small piece of cake, according to the press office.
\nIt said it would issue another medical bulletin Friday evening, but might stop sending a daily morning update.
\nTalk is now turning to when he might go home.
\nBut Francis\u2019s hospital stay, the longest and most difficult of his papacy, has raised doubts about his ability to lead the world\u2019s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics.
\n\u201cIt takes time for an 88-year-old body affected by bilateral pneumonia to recover, also in terms of energy, of strength,\u201d the press office said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis marked a month in hospital Friday, with football players sending him messages of support for his recovery from pneumonia, including the captain of his favorite team, San Lorenzo. Francis, 88, has been in Rome\u2019s Gemelli hospital since February 14 and has suffered a series of breathing crises, with doctors initially warning …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78439,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78421\/revisions\/78439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}