Pope thanks children who gathered to pray for him

Dozens of children with yellow and white balloons, many of countries devastated by war, gathered outside the Gemelli hospital in Rome to greet Pope Francis in his fifth Sunday hospitalized with double pneumonia.

While the Pope did not appear from the 10th floor set, he recognized his presence in the traditional Sunday blessing.

“I know that many children pray for me; some of them came here today as a sign of closeness,” said the Pontiff in Angelus’s text prepared for traditional prayer but not delivered live again.

“Thank you, dear children! The Pope loves you and is always waiting to meet you,” Francis said.

Reverend Fortunato, the president of the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day that organized the event, said that the meeting of children with their parents was a form of spiritual medicine for the 88 -year -old pontiff. He called him “the most beautiful caress.”

“Children represent a symbolic medicine for Pope Francis,” said Fortunato.

“Let him know that so many children are here for him encourages his heart.”

A small group of children, whose balloons represented the colors of the Vatican flag, briefly entered the hospital to leave behind their drawings, messages and flowers for Francis.

Many of the children came from the poorest Italian districts or from countries affected by the war, some had arrived in Italy from Afghanistan and Syria through humanitarian corridors established by the beneficial organization Sant’Egidio according to the Italian government; Others were from Ukraine, Gaza, South America and Africa.

One of them was Anastasia, 12, who got up at 5 in the morning at the local time to make the trip from Naples in the hope of delivering the message directly to the Pope.

“I wrote: ‘Pope Francis, recover and return home soon,'” he said.

“‘We love you, all children are praying for you'”.

Francis generally delivers the Angelus from a window with a view to the Plaza de San Pedro to the loyal faithful, who have become more numerous due to the year of the jubilee that Francis inaugurated in December.

In the written text, Francis said he was thinking about others, that like him, they are in a fragile state.

“Our bodies are weak, but even so, nothing can prevent us from loving, praying, giving us, being one for the other, in faith, bright signs of hope,” said the Pope.

The Pope is no longer in critical condition

Together with a stop at St Peter’s to look for indulgences walking along the sacred door of the basilica, the pilgrims are now also adding a stop in Gemelli, a 15 -minute train trip from the Vatican.

The doctors said this week that the Pontiff was no longer in a critical and potentially deadly condition, but they have continued to emphasize that their condition remained complex due to their age, lack of mobility and the loss of part of a lung when he was young.

Even so, they are broadcasting less medical newsletters, since the pontiff has been in an ascending trajectory. An radiography this week confirmed that the infection was cleaning.

Francis has not been seen publicly since he was admitted to the hospital on February 14 after a bronchitis attack that made it difficult to speak. The doctors soon added a diagnosis of double pneumonia and a polymicrobial infection (bacterial, viral and fungal).

The first three weeks of their hospitalization were marked by a roller mountain of setbacks, which include respiratory crises, mild renal failure and a severe cough adjustment.

Doctors in the most recent medical update on Saturday said they were working to reduce the Pope’s night dependence on the non -invasive ventilation mask, which will allow their lungs to work more.

The doctors stressed that while the Pope’s condition is stable, it still requires hospitalization for treatment together with physical and respiratory therapy, which “show more gradual improvements,” said the Vatican on Saturday in the first medical update in three days.

The next update will not be broadcast until the middle of next week, said the Vatican.