" His heart is perfect ," but " the Holy Father has always wanted the truth to be told about his health ," and so " it seemed appropriate to us to share what happened to the Holy Father, how he is, and what we expect ."

Thus began, at 5.30 pm, the briefing on the Pope's health at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome .

"The Pope, like many others these days, began to treat his illness at home. Then he got worse, he went to the doctors, and then he ended up in the hospital ," said Professor Sergio Alfieri . "Also because," continued Alfieri, "unlike other 88-year-olds in the world, the Pope does not stay at home on the couch, but governs the Church: and the effort that is asked of him is different from that of all the others."

"The Pope is like an 88-year-old man with a polymicrobial infection : viruses, fungi, bacteria. He maintains his good mood : this morning, when I said to him "Good morning, Holy Father", he replied: "Good morning, Holy son"....", added Alfieri. " The chronic disease remains, the Pope knows it, he said 'I realize that the situation is serious' ", "sometimes he is short of breath and the sensation is not pleasant for anyone".

According to the doctors, at first " there was no evidence of inflammation, of pneumonia, in the lungs. Then we did a CT scan and bilateral pneumonia appeared. Which is still there. If the question is: is the Pope out of danger? No, not yet . But is his life in danger now? The answer, once again, is no . A few minutes ago he left the room to go to the chapel, to pray."

"The real risk is if the germs pass into the blood , with sepsis as a consequence. But today there are no such germs in the blood", "the infection is now only in the lung". "We have also reduced some drugs ".

Alfieri then also clarified that Bergoglio will remain hospitalized at Gemelli "at least for the whole of next week" . "The Pope is not attached to any machine" , the further clarification.   «When he needs it , he puts on his nose for a little oxygen , but he breathes spontaneously and feeds himself».

As for the lack of photos to date of the hospitalized Pope, the peremptory response: "We respect his privacy."

(Unioneonline/vl)

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