JUST IN: HOSPITALISED POPE FRANCIS MARKS 12 YEARS IN JOB WITH FUTURE UNCERTAIN

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After spending a month in the hospital, Pope Francis appears to be out of danger, but his health continues to put doubt on his future as he marks 12 years as head of the Catholic Church on Thursday.

The 88-year-old was hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 and battled pneumonia in both lungs, which left him seriously unwell for a while.

Since then, the Argentine’s condition has significantly improved; on Wednesday night, the Vatican confirmed that his status was stable, and on Thursday morning, it reported once more that he had a restful night.

Though his hospitalization, the longest and most contentious of his papacy, has cast doubt on his capacity to guide the almost 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, discussions are now shifting to when he might return home.

Prior to this, Francis had refused to accept his advanced age or deteriorating health, which forced him to start using a wheelchair three years ago.

He led enormous open-air gatherings during a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific area in September, although his hectic daily schedule was punctuated by frequent international travel.

Given his age and ongoing medical conditions, which are exacerbated by the fact that he had a portion of one lung removed when he was a young man, experts estimate that his recuperation could take weeks.

“The rest of his pontificate remains a question mark for the moment, including for Francis himself,” said Father Michel Kubler, a Vatican expert and former editor in chief of the French religious newspaper La Croix.

“He doesn’t know what his life will be like once he returns to the Vatican, and so no doubt reserves the option of resigning if he can no longer cope,” he told AFP.

Francis has always left the door open to resigning were his health to deteriorate, following the example of Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to voluntarily step down.

More lately, however, the Jesuit has disassociated himself from the notion, stating that the position is permanent.

Francis has assigned senior cardinals to lead masses while he is in the hospital, although he has continued to work intermittently, writing decrees and receiving close colleagues.

However, he has missed a month of activities for the 2025 Jubilee, a pope-organized holy year that is expected to bring an extra 30 million pilgrims to the Vatican and Rome.

Furthermore, it is doubtful that he will be well enough to oversee a comprehensive schedule of activities for Easter, the Christian calendar’s holiest season, which is less than six weeks away.

“This is the end of the pontificate as we have known it until now,” Kubler said.

Francis struck a sharp contrast to his cerebral predecessor when he took office, eschewing the trappings of office and reaching out to the most disadvantaged in society with a message that the Church was for everyone.

A former archbishop of Buenos Aires more at home with his flock than the cardinals of the Roman Curia, Francis introduced sweeping reforms across the Vatican and beyond.

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Some of the changes, from reorganizing the Vatican’s finances to increasing the role of women and opening the Church to divorced and LGBTQ members, have been laid down in official texts.

But a wide-ranging discussion on the future of the Church, known as a Synod, is not yet finished.

And there are many who would happily see his work undone.

Traditionalists have strongly resisted his approach, and an outcry in Africa caused the Vatican to clarify its authorization of non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples in 2023.

“Whether we like him or not, he has shifted the dial, but many things are still pending,” a Vatican source said.

AFP