ROME (AP) — Pope Francis marked the 12th anniversary of his pontificate Thursday in the hospital — the first pope to do so in modern church history — as he received increasingly positive medical news on his recovery, a cake and hundreds of messages wishing him well.
The pope spent the morning in physiotherapy, followed Lenten spiritual exercises of the Roman curia and stopped to pray at the chapel in the Gemelli Hospital, where he has been under treatment for a complex lung infection since Feb. 14, Vatican sources said.
In the afternoon, he received a cake from hospital personnel.
A chest X-ray has confirmed improvements in his condition, the Vatican said on Wednesday, just two days after doctors declared he’s no longer in imminent danger of death.
The latest medical bulletin said that the 88-year-old pope’s condition remained stable but indicated a complex picture considering his overall fragility, which includes his age, limited mobility often requiring a wheelchair and the removal of part of a lung as a young man. No medical updates were issued on his anniversary.
Francis was elected on March 13, 2013 as the 266th pontiff — and the Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope.
The pope's anniversary is a public holiday at the Vatican, but no special commemorations were held. A Mass was held in his honor later at the Argentine church in Rome, with several dozen worshippers in attendance.
“It was a different church before (him),'' said Lia Pratico. "It has changed from a niche church to a universal church because Pope Francis is everybody’s pope, not just an Argentine pope.”
Francis received hundreds of drawings and messages from children and young people from around the globe wishing him a full recovery, the Vatican said.
Gemelli Hospital, located about a 15-minute train ride from the Vatican, has become a stop for pilgrims visiting Rome as part of Jubilee Year celebrations.
The Rev. Enrico Bortolaso, who led a group of pilgrims from northern Veneto, offered prayers near a statue of Pope John Paul II outside of the hospital. He said they made Gemelli their first stop.
“We wanted to come here to pray for him and for his recovery,’’ said one of the Veneto faithful, Alberto Jerbonato. “We are aware that he is 88 years old, and we are fully aware of what he is facing."
John Paul, who spent 55 days in Gemelli in the longest hospital stretch by a pope to date, used to quip that it was ’’Vatican 3,” following the Vatican itself and Castel Gandolfo, long used as a papal retreat by popes until Francis.
‘’It’s a sort of a seat of fragility, from where he continues his ministry,’’ Cardinal Marcello Semeraro was quoted as saying in L’Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, on Thursday.
The newspaper underlined that Francis is the first pope, at least in modern history, to spend the anniversary of his pontificate in the hospital.
Francis this week has been following a Lenten spiritual retreat that has been a mainstay of his papacy, with updates on his condition omitting reference to work as earlier in his hospital stay.
He continues to receive high flows of oxygen through nasal tubes during the day and a non-invasive mechanical mask to aid his rest at night. He also is undergoing physical therapy, key to avoiding further repercussions from his hospitalization.
The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected on the fifth ballot of the 2013 conclave, which was called after Pope Benedict XVI resigned.
While Francis has praised Benedict’s humility in stepping down and said he might follow in his footsteps, more recently he has said the papacy is a job for life.
Another milestone comes Friday, when Francis marks four weeks of hospitalization.
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AP video journalists Andrea Rosa and Srdjan Nedeljkovic contributed.
Colleen Barry, The Associated Press
