The Telegraph.<\/a><\/p>\nThe Vatican had said the 86-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church had been taken to Rome\u2019s Gemelli Hospital for \u201cpreviously scheduled checks\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, Italian media reported that the pontiff was suffering from \u201cheart problems\u201d and \u201cbreathing difficulties\u201d and had been taken to hospital by ambulance.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday evening, the Pope\u2019s spokesman said: \u201cIn the last few days, Pope Francis has complained of breathing difficulties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis afternoon he was admitted to Gemelli Hospital for medical checks. The results of these checks showed a respiratory infection, not Covid-19, which will require several days of hospital therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least three leading Italian newspapers reported that Pope Francis had started to suffer from breathing difficulties and heart problems after his weekly audience on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
He was photographed grimacing while getting into and out of his white \u201cpopemobile\u201d during the audience in St Peter\u2019s Square.<\/p>\n
Vatican sources said the Pope\u2019s appointments for Thursday and Friday had been canceled. His admission to hospital comes just days before Holy Week and the lead-up to Easter, traditionally one of the busiest times for the Pope.<\/p>\n
He is due to celebrate Palm Sunday this weekend, followed next week by Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil and finally Easter Sunday on April 9.<\/p>\n
In December, Francis revealed that several years ago he signed a letter of resignation to be used if he is unable to perform his duties for health reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pope Francis has a respiratory infection and will require hospitalization for several days, the Vatican confirmed on Wednesday night. That\u2019s according to The Telegraph. The Vatican had said the 86-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church had been taken to Rome\u2019s Gemelli Hospital for \u201cpreviously scheduled checks\u201d. However, Italian media reported that the pontiff was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":155043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5142,5153,5147],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-155083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-top-en","9":"category-world-en"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/16801067587051.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155084,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155083\/revisions\/155084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}