ROME – As Pope Francis, an Argentinian and history’s first Latin American pope, continues to battle a respiratory infection and double pneumonia, his fellow countrymen have gathered in prayer for his heath and recovery.

The pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital Feb. 14 to treat bronchitis and was later diagnosed with a complex respiratory infection and bilateral pneumonia.

After experiencing a major respiratory crisis over the weekend, he remains in critical but stable condition, and doctors have not yet offered an overall prognosis for the 88-year-old pontiff.

The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis controversially has never returned to his home country following his election in 2013, where opinions about him are divided. He had previously expressed a desire to visit Argentina last year, but that trip did not happen.

However, as the pontiff continues to fight for his life in what is nearly a two-week hospital stay, his fellow Argentinians at home and abroad have gathered in support and to pray for his health and recovery.

On Monday hundreds gathered at Plaza Constitución in Buenos Aires – where then-Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio would give an annual mass condemning global poverty, inequality, and injustice – to participate in a special open-air mass for Pope Francis’s health.

The square is located near one of the capital’s busiest train stations, where it is common to see sex workers, street vendors and the homeless gathered.

Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva, the pope’s successor as archbishop of Buenos Aires, celebrated the Mass, praying in his homily, “May our prayer be the breath of fresh air that reaches his lungs.”

“Do not slow down. We need you very much,” he said of Pope Francis, whose nearly 12-papacy he called “a breath of fresh air – it is a breath of oxygen for a world suffocated by violence, selfishness, exclusion.”

“From this square, Francis said that our society is full of beaten men and women. Here at Constitución you see life at its crudest, without make-up,” he said, and defended Francis from what he said was criticism and misinformation about his papacy.

García Cuerva also urged faithful to reflect on times they have perhaps judged or misunderstood Francis, and to stand by him in prayer as he fights his respiratory infection and pneumonia.

The Mass was concelebrated by Buenos Aires’s auxiliary bishops, Archbishop Gustavo Carrara of La Plata and Cardinal Mario Poli, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Several government officials, including Security Minister Waldo Wolff, were also in attendance.

In Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar of Rome, celebrated a Feb. 25 Mass in the Roman church of Santa Maria Addolorata in piazza Buenos Aires, the national church of Argentines in Rome.

Crowds of faithful cued up Tuesday to get a seat at the Mass, and to write a prayer for the Argentine pontiff inside a blue notebook filled with the thoughts, memories and reflections of the faithful.

Reina in his homily said that “Our prayer tonight is the choral prayer of the entire church. As one great family, we ask the Lord to give our bishop the health, the strength and the capacity to face this moment as he always has: With serenity and the confidence of being in the hands and between the arms of God.”

This prayer is offered “through the intercession of Most Holy Virgin, so that she may support the Holy Father and the journey of all of us,” he said.

Reina pointed to what he said was “the profundity and the simplicity that characterize” Pope Francis, saying that in his 12 years as pope “his magisterium has always taught our life itself to have an attitude of truth trust before the Lord.”

“It’s the most beautiful experience we can have as Christians, to recognize that the Lord in his divine providence guides both universal history and the life of each one of us,” he said, saying, “We all need to entrust ourselves humbly to God to do his will.”

In times of difficulty, it is important to stay united to Jesus, Reina said, calling this the “medicine” for Christians and “the path upon which we’re call to walk.”

Father Fernando Laguna, rector of the parish, concelebrated the Mass along with a large number of other priests, most of whom were Argentinians.

“Our community is living these days of apprehension in prayer. It’s the only way we can be close to the pope. It’s our way of sending him a big kiss and hug,” he said.

Sister Fernanda Bongianino, a member of the Daughters of St. Camillo, which runs a clinic in Buenos Aires where a handful of nuns cared for then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was also in attendance.

“We’re praying for him. We’re entrusting him to the Virgin and to St. Cammilo, to whom he’s very devoted,” she said.

Pope Francis’s recovery was also entrusted to the intercession of Our Lady of Luján, the patroness of Argentina.

Luis Alberto D’Onofrio, 74, a native of Buenos Aires now living in Rome, recalled meeting the pope twice –once in Argentine at a Christmas Mass, and another time after he’d been elected pope here in Rome.

“I was far away, but I yelled ‘Forza River Plate,’” he recalled, referring to a rival to Francis’s favorite Argentine soccer team San Lorenzo. “After that, he came right over and hugged me,” D’Onofrio said.