Pope Francis will be discharged from the 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, the 88-year-old 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 to greet the crowd and to impart a traditional Sunday blessing, Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesperson, said at a news conference Saturday.

The announcements amounted to a remarkable turn of events for the leader of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. Doctors said 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 that 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. They also said that Francis 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, people with small children and avoid other possible sources of infection.

His doctors also said that Francis now has 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.”

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.

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 pontiff responded. “That’s when we knew he was well and had regained his good humor.”

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

Francis was admitted to the hospital Feb. 14 with bronchitis, which developed into pneumonia in both lungs, complicated by a microbial tract infection. Doctors didn’t mince words when they held a news conference at the Gemelli hospital Feb. 21, warning he was “not out of danger,” because of his age and chronic lung disease.

For several weeks, Francis remained in critical condition, 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, alternating with high-flow oxygen therapy during the day.

On March 10, the Vatican announced that Francis had improved enough to no longer be considered in imminent danger from pneumonia and other infections, but said he would require more days of inpatient treatment. He began to slowly reduce his use of oxygen therapy.

Last Sunday, the Vatican issued the first photo of the pontiff since he had entered the hospital.

Francis was already frail. He had a part of one lung removed as a young man, and in recent years, he has been battling a number of health problems, using a wheelchair or a cane to move around. He was hospitalized with bronchitis in 2023, and again a few months later to undergo abdominal surgery for a hernia, linked to colon surgery he had in 2021.

Francis has often struggled with bronchitis during the winter months, but that had not stopped the pope 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.