ROME – Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, has said Pope Francis continues to rest after his return from the hospital, and is not receiving anyone or holding meetings or audiences of any kind.
He also said that no definitive plans for Holy Week and Easter have yet been decided, but expects that cardinals could be tapped to preside over liturgical celebrations in the pope’s place.
Speaking to journalists on the margins of a recent event in Sacrofano, Parolin said that after his March 23 return from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, the pope “rests, he doesn’t see anyone, and, to my knowledge, he does not have audiences and he does not receive people.”
“What is important is that he finds time to recover, little by little,” Parolin said.
Pope Francis spent 38 days in the hospital, after being admitted Feb. 14 for treatment of a complex respiratory infection and double pneumonia.
The doctor leading his medical team at Gemelli Hospital, surgeon Sergio Alfieri, in a recent interview with an Italian newspaper called the pope’s recovery “miraculous,” saying the pontiff had two close brushes with death during his hospital stay and credited his recovery in part to prayer.
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“It seems to me that the pope is well connected with the whole Church and with all of the faithful: This has been demonstrated by all the expressions of affection and above all prayer with which he was accompanied throughout his illness, and which continue,” Parolin said in his remarks to journalists.
Parolin said he continues to receive a stream of messages from people saying they are praying for the pope and his full recovery, “so that he can return to carrying out his activities, to governing the Church.”
“Perhaps not like before, he will have to find different ways, but that he is still able to do it,” he said.
The Vatican said Friday that Pope Francis continues to make progress in his recovery at home, where he is continuing antibiotic treatment and motor and respiratory therapy, and where he meets only with his closes collaborators. While he still uses high-flow oxygen, he is becoming less dependent on it, the Vatican said.
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Plans remain up in the air as Francis observes a doctor-prescribed two-month period of rest and no meetings with groups, is what will happen with the papal liturgies for Holy Week and Easter, as well as his various jubilee commitments, including the upcoming canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis, the so-called “techie teen” known for his devotion to the Eucharist.
Jubilee events in the near future include the April 5-6 Jubilee of the Sick and Healthcare Workers, and the April 25-27 Jubilee of Teenagers, during which Acutis will be canonized during a Mass on Sunday, April 27.
In between, the pope will also have Holy Week commitments the week of April 13-20, including a Palm Sunday Mass, a Chrism Mass, a Veneration of the Cross Passion service in St. Peter’s Basilica, an outdoor Via Crucis at Rome’s Colosseum, the Easter Vigil, and Mass and the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter Sunday.
Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday, which falls one week after Easter Sunday, coincides this year with the Jubilee for Teenagers and the canonization of Acutis.
Parolin in his comments to journalists said the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, notably absent from the Vatican’s list of Holy Week liturgies this year, is normally held outside of the Vatican, at a hospital or a prison.
“I imagine that this year it is unthinkable that the pope could go out,” he said, adding that for the rest of the pope’s schedule, “we will see if the pope is able to preside over celebrations or whether he will delegate some cardinal to do so in his name.”
Pope Francis in the past when unable to celebrate papal liturgies at the altar has presided from a chair off to the side, with a cardinal celebrating at the altar in his place. If he is unable to be present at this year’s liturgies, however, it will mark the first time in his papacy that he has missed these events entirely.
He has, however, opted to follow the Good Friday Via Crucis at the Colosseum via live feed when he has been unable to attend due to illness or cold weather. Pope Francis has skipped the event for the past two years, meaning this will likely be the third year in a row that he has been unable to lead the prayer in person.
In terms of this year’s Via Crucis, Parolin said no decision has yet been made on who will preside over the event, but it is likely it will be Italian Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Vicar of Rome, since the Via Crucis is not just a Vatican event, but “a local reality of the Church of Rome.”
Pope Francis in his Sunday, March 30 Angelus address focused on Lent as a time of healing of both mind and body, including his own.
Reflecting on Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son, Francis said the heart of God “is always merciful towards all; he heals our wounds so that we can love each other as brothers.”
“Let us live this Lent as a time of healing, all the more as it is the Jubilee,” he said, saying, “I too am experiencing it this way, in my soul and in my body.”
He offered a “heartfelt thanks to all those who, in the image of the Savior, are instruments of healing for their neighbor with their word and their knowledge, with kindness and with prayer.”
“Frailty and illness are experiences we all have in common; all the more, however, we are brothers in the salvation Christ has given us,” he said, and prayed for peace in the world, asking Mary as Mother of Mercy to “help the human family to be reconciled in peace.”
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