Pope Francis is in critical condition after a respiratory crisis, according to the Vatican

Pope Francis remains in critical health after suffering a severe asthmatic respiratory crisis this morning, necessitating high-flow oxygen therapy, according to a Vatican report issued Saturday.

“This morning Pope Francis presented with an asthmatic respiratory crisis of prolonged magnitude, which also required the application of oxygen at high flows,” the Vatican wrote about the ailing pontiff who is being treated for pneumonia.

Francis required oxygen and a blood transfusion on Saturday morning, according to the statement.  The pope spent the day “alert” and sitting in an armchair, “although in more pain than yesterday,” the Vatican said.

Earlier on Saturday, the Vatican announced that Francis would remain in the hospital following his pneumonia diagnosis and would not give the weekly Angelus prayer for just the third time in his almost 12-year papacy.

Pope Francis, who hails from Argentina, is vulnerable to respiratory diseases.  As a young man, he had a severe case of pneumonia that required the removal of a portion of one lung.

In 2021, physicians surgically removed a portion of his colon due to diverticulitis, which can cause inflammation or infection of the colon.  In 2023, he was hospitalized for pneumonia, and in recent months, he fell twice, bruising his jaw and injuring his arm, which was slinged.

This is Francis' third stay in a hospital since becoming pope.

The pope's hospitalization coincides with the Vatican's commemoration of the jubilee, a Catholic Church tradition that commemorates the pardon of sins every 50 years.  The event, commonly known as the Holy Year, continued on Saturday without Francis.

Francis, 88, was taken to Gemelli Hospital on February 14 with bronchitis.  Earlier this week, the Vatican revealed that Francis had acquired pneumonia in both lungs.  The polymicrobial infection had “arisen in the context of bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and has required the use of corticosteroid and antibiotics,” which “makes the therapeutic treatment more complex.”