Now out of the hospital, the pope is following his doctors' instructions: rest and two months of convalescence. Inside the Vatican, his house is equipped with everything necessary for him to follow the therapies, which, moreover, are giving positive results.
If there was something that caused concern only two days before the pontiff was discharged, it was the statement of the Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith: Francis had lost his voice.
CARD. VÍCTOR M. FERNÁNDEZ
Prefect, Dicastery Doctrine of the Faith
Now the pope is physically very well, almost as before the illness, only now he must learn to speak again in the sense that he has little strength in his voice as could be heard the other day.
His words became a reality. In his greeting as he left the Gemelli, Pope Francis hardly had the strength to speak, although he tried with a couple of short sentences, unable to hide his fatigue.
POPE FRANCIS
Thank you all. And I see this lady with the yellow flowers. She is good.
Now, the good news confirmed by the Vatican is that the pope is improving in speech, as well as in motor and respiratory function. In addition, his high-flow oxygen doses have been lowered.
The pope no longer wears the mask that used to cover his nose and mouth. Instead, he wears the nasal cannulas; the same ones he was seen with in the car the morning he left the hospital.
As for his day-to-day life, Francis maintains the routine he followed at Gemelli: prayer, rest and physiotherapy. But he is also working, although in a more restricted way and without much effort, as advised by the doctors.
In his first week out of the hospital, he received no private visitors. Not even the number two of the Holy See, Cardinal Parolin, who did visit him a couple of times at the Gemelli to discuss various matters, went to see him.
This does not mean, however, that Pope Francis does not continue to govern the Church from his home. The Vatican confirms that the pope continues to receive documents sent to him by the various dicasteries of the Curia; many of them require the pope's approval as a matter of course.
Francis was also informed about the earthquake in Burma, whose magnitude of 7.7 also affected neighboring countries such as China and Thailand. The Holy See Office said that, upon hearing of the earthquake, the pope was praying for the victims.
At the moment, and a few days before Holy Week, all eyes are on what the pontiff will do. Meanwhile, the only official information from the Vatican is that it will be necessary to wait to see his improvement to evaluate his possible presence and in what conditions.
And if Pope Francis is better, a small appearance from Santa Marta could have been expected on Sunday, even if it was by video call, as he has done on other occasions when he has been ill, or as he did at the Gemelli: a small greeting and a blessing. But this was not the case.
What the Vatican did distribute was the text of the Angelus. The pope, in the first person, spoke of his illness. He said that he too was going through a time of healing, both in body and soul.
JH
