Pope Francis is doing well as he
battles pneumonia in a Rome hospital but has to relearn how to
speak, a fellow Argentine cardinal said Friday.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez said that Francis's return for
Easter "depends on the doctors".
"The Pope is doing very well but the high-flow oxygen dries
everything out. He has to learn to speak again but his body is
as it was before."
When asked if he will be in the Vatican for Easter, Fernandez
replied: "He could return but the doctors want to be 100% sure
because he thinks that in the little time he has left he wants
to spend everything for others and not for himself."
The cardinal recalled that "the Pope did not want to go to the
hospital, very close friends convinced him, I don't know what
swear words they used...", joked the Argentine cardinal.
"But he is a Jesuit from another era, a strong man, who always
has the ability to find meaning even in these dark times."
Fernandez was speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of
the pope's book Viva La Poesia, edited by fellow Jesuit Father
Antonio Spadaro.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
