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Pope Francis had coffee and read newspapers on Saturday following a concerning setback in his two-week recovery from double pneumonia, reports AP. Doctors placed him on noninvasive mechanical ventilation after he suffered a coughing fit, during which he inhaled vomit that had to be extracted. Italian Premier visits Pope Francis in hospital Medical experts stated that it would take a day or two to assess whether Friday afternoon’s incident had affected the pope’s overall condition. His prognosis remained guarded, meaning he was still not out of danger. In a Saturday morning update, the Vatican confirmed that the 88-year-old pope experienced no further respiratory crises overnight: “The night has passed quietly, the pope is resting.” He had coffee with breakfast, indicating he was not reliant on a ventilation mask for breathing and continued to eat independently. In its late Friday update, the Vatican described the incident as an “isolated crisis of bronchial spasm,” where a coughing fit caused the pope to inhale vomit, leading to a “sudden worsening of the respiratory picture.” Doctors aspirated the vomit and placed him on noninvasive mechanical ventilation. Pope Francis diagnosed with pneumonia Throughout the episode, Pope Francis remained conscious, alert, and cooperative with the necessary medical interventions. He responded well, maintaining good oxygen exchange levels and continuing to use a mask for supplemental oxygen, according to the Vatican. The incident marked a setback after two consecutive days of increasingly positive updates from doctors treating him at Rome’s Gemelli hospital since his admission on 14 February. The pope, who had part of one lung removed in his youth, suffers from lung disease and was hospitalised when a case of bronchitis worsened into pneumonia affecting both lungs. Doctors express concern The Vatican noted that this episode differed from the prolonged respiratory crisis reported on 22 February, which had caused discomfort for the pope. Dr John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care physician at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, described the event as alarming, highlighting the pope’s fragility and the rapid changes in his condition. “I find this extremely concerning, given that the pope has been hospitalised for over two weeks and continues to experience respiratory episodes, now including an aspiration event that requires greater support,” Coleman told The Associated Press. “Considering his age, fragile state, and prior lung resection, this is very concerning,” he added, though he is not involved in Francis’ treatment. Dr William Feldman, a pulmonary specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, agreed that while it was reassuring the pope remained alert during the episode, it still marked “a worrying turn.” “Often, we use noninvasive ventilation to prevent the need for intubation or invasive mechanical ventilation,” Feldman explained. Types of noninvasive ventilation include a BiPAP machine, which assists breathing by pushing air into the lungs. Doctors typically monitor whether a patient’s blood gas levels improve with its use before transitioning back to oxygen therapy alone. Friday’s statement indicated Francis showed a “good response” to gas exchange through ventilation. Doctors have not resumed describing Francis as being in “critical condition,” a term absent from statements for the past three days. However, they caution that he remains at risk due to the complexity of his health situation. Prayers continue worldwide Francis’ hospitalisation coincides with the Vatican’s Holy Year, drawing pilgrims to Rome from around the world. Many are walking through the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica and making pilgrimages to Assisi, the hometown of his namesake, St Francis. “Every day, we’re praying for the pope,” said the Rev. Jacinto Bento, a priest visiting Assisi on Saturday with 30 Jubilee pilgrims from the Azores Islands. “We’re very sad about his condition.” Veronica Abraham, a catechist and Argentine native, visited Assisi on Saturday with her two children and other parish kids from Lake Garda. She shared that the group had prayed for the pope at every church they had visited. “I’m sure he’s hearing our prayers, that he feels our closeness,” she said. Serena Barbon, visiting Assisi from Treviso with her husband and three children, expressed hope that if Francis does not recover, his successor will carry on his legacy. “He’s been very charismatic, and we pray for him and that any new pope might also be someone who puts the poor at the centre. Because in some way, we are all the poor,” she said.

Pope Francis praised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “acute and gentle thought” as he presided over a packed Wednesday general audience in the Vatican, while thousands of people paid tribute to the former pope on the final day of public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica. Francis was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd in the Paul VI auditorium and shouts of “Viva il papa!” or “Long live the pope” as he arrived for his weekly catechism appointment with the faithful. This week’s audience was conducted as tens of thousands of people continued to flock to St. Peter’s Basilica to pay their respects before Benedict’s body, lying in state. The first two days of viewing drew a total of 135,000 people. Wednesday’s viewing began before dawn and was set to end in early evening. Francis is due to preside over the late German pope’s funeral on Thursday, an event that is drawing heads of state and royalty despite Benedict’s requests for simplicity and Vatican efforts to keep the first Vatican funeral for an emeritus pope in modern times low-key. Francis drew applause when he opened his remarks by noting all those who were outside paying tribute to Benedict, whom he called a “great master of catechesis.” “His acute and gentle thought was not self-referential, but ecclesial, because he always wanted to accompany us in the encounter with Jesus,” Francis said. Later Wednesday, Vatican officials were to place Benedict’s body in a cypress coffin — the first of three coffins —along with a brief, written summary of his historic papacy, the coins minted during his pontificate and his pallium stoles. Read more: Pope on Christmas: Jesus was poor, so don’t be power-hungry After the funeral, the retired pontiff’s remains will be carried back into the basilica, where the coffin will placed inside a zinc one, and then finally into another made from oak. In keeping with Benedict’s wishes, his remains will be placed in the crypt once occupied by the tomb of St. John Paul II in the grottos underneath the basilica. Benedict, who was elected pope in 2005 following John Paul’s death, became the first pope in six centuries years to resign when he announced in 2013 he no longer had the strength to lead the Catholic Church. After Francis was elected pope, Benedict spent his nearly decade-long retirement in a converted monastery in the Vatican Gardens. “We can’t forget the example that he gave in his resignation, that he more or less said, ‘Look, I’m not in this for the prestige, the power of the office, I’m in it for service, as Jesus taught,’” recalled Cardinal Timothy Dolan, whom Benedict named archbishop of New York in 2009 and cardinal in 2012. Dolan came to Rome for the funeral. Thursday’s rite takes into account the unusual situation in which a reigning pope will preside over a funeral for a retired one, making important changes to a funeral ritual for popes that is highly codified. Two key prayers, from the diocese of Rome and the Eastern rite churches, that were recited during John Paul’s funeral, for example, will be omitted because Benedict wasn’t pope when he died and because both branches of the Catholic Church still have a reigning pope as their leader: Francis. Read more: Did the Pope actually say ‘even nuns watch porn’? While the funeral will be novel, it does has some precedent: In 1802, Pope Pius VII celebrated the funeral in St. Peter’s of his predecessor, Pius VI, who had died in exile in France in 1799 as a prisoner of Napoleon, the Vatican noted Wednesday.

Families that usually reunite on Christmas over a hearty, lingering meal celebrated apart Friday, services shifted online, and gift exchanges were low-key in one of the most unusual and subdued holiday seasons in decades.

The Vatican is sending its top two sex crimes investigators to Mexico on a fact-finding and assistance mission as the Catholic hierarchy in the world's second-largest Catholic country begins to reckon with decades of clergy sex abuse and cover-up.

A Chinese Catholic priest whose demotion was key to a now-stalled effort at reconciliation between China and the Vatican is being pressured to join the official Communist Party-controlled church organization, a fellow priest and Catholic news source said.