Pope Francis will be discharged from hospital Sunday, doctors say

ROME – Pope Francis’ condition has improved enough that he will be discharged from a hospital in Rome on Sunday and sent to recover in the Vatican for at least two months, his doctors said Saturday evening.

On Sunday, Francis plans to make his first public appearance since he was hospitalized Feb. 14. He is expected to appear at noon on the 10th-floor balcony of Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he has been staying, to greet the crowd and to impart a traditional Sunday blessing, Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesperson, said at a news conference Saturday.

The announcement of the pope’s coming release made for a remarkable turn of events for the leader of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, after weeks in which he lay in critical condition and the Roman Catholic Church seemed on the brink of a conclave to pick his successor. Instead, Francis’ steady, if slow, improvement has ushered in a new phase for him and the church.

He will return to the Vatican, physically diminished, at least in the short term, without his voice, reliant on oxygen and deprived of closeness to the faithful, which has been the hallmark of his pontificate and the manifestation of his pastoral vision for the church.

“It’s a sigh of relief,” the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a close associate of Francis’, said Saturday evening. He added that for the church, but also for a world in flux, “there was a great anticipation, as well as need, for his presence.”

Francis had been able to govern the church from the hospital, and after he finished his blessing Sunday he would go home, Bruni said.

Only weeks ago, there was great concern within the church and beyond that he would never return. Doctors, speaking at a news conference at the Gemelli hospital Saturday evening, said that the pope’s case of pneumonia in both lungs had been so severe that it had twice put his life in grave danger.

But they said he had been stable for two weeks and in the past three or four days had been asking when he could go home.

“He was very happy,” said Dr. Sergio Alfieri, leader of the medical team taking care of the pope. Alfieri added that he was happy to share “the good news that I imagine the whole world was waiting for.”

Doctors said that the pope had overcome his most dangerous infections but that he was not completely healed and needed to rest for at least two months.

Doctors also said that Francis, 88, would still require drug therapy and oxygen, as is normal for patients recovering from pneumonia, before he could resume his regular schedule. They added that they hoped he would soon no longer require oxygen, but urged that the pope avoid meeting with large groups and people with small children and that he avoid other possible sources of infection.

His doctors also said that Francis had difficulty speaking, which was to be expected for a patient who had suffered serious damage to the lungs and respiratory muscles.

“One of the first things that happens is you lose your voice a little,” said Dr. Luigi Carbone, the pope’s Vatican-based doctor, who also spoke at a news conference Saturday. “It will take time for his voice to return as it was.”

For weeks Catholics around the world have been praying for his recovery, and since Feb. 25, cardinals and bishops have led a nightly rosary prayer in St. Peter’s Square that draws hundreds of the faithful each night.

Francis remained in critical condition for several weeks, as he experienced an asthmatic respiratory crisis; initial, mild kidney failure; and a bronchial spasm that caused him to inhale his vomit after a coughing fit. He used noninvasive mechanical ventilation during the night and high-flow oxygen therapy during the day.

After the pope had survived his most severe crises, doctors said they asked him how he was doing.

“I’m still alive,” Alfieri said the pope responded. “That’s when we knew he was well and had regained his good humor.”

Francis entered the hospital with an acute respiratory insufficiency from viral and bacterial infections, but was treated with a drug therapy treatment and oxygen that slowly improved his condition. The pope, his doctors said Saturday, had never been intubated and remained alert and conscious throughout his hospitalization.

The doctors said that the pope’s Vatican residence was sufficiently equipped to deal with his medical needs and that they had emergency services available around the clock.

Francis has often struggled with bronchitis during the winter months, but that had not stopped him from keeping up a grueling schedule in the weeks before his hospitalization, intensified by the opening of the 2025 Jubilee, a year of faith, penance and forgiveness of sins that takes place only every quarter century.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.