Pope Francis is reportedly rushing to tie up loose ends and secure his legacy ahead of the race to succeed him.
The pope, 88, was admitted to Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic hospital on Friday after experiencing symptoms of bronchitis for several days.
He has since been forced to cancel quite a few public appearances, including his Sunday Angelus address to pilgrims from his balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square and tomorrow’s weekly audience.
It has once more raised concerns over the health of the Argentine pontiff, who famously had a part of one lung removed following a severe infection in his 20s and has experienced multiple medical problems over the past two years.
Francis is claimed to have been experiencing severe pain during his current hospital stay and has confided to those closest to him that he won’t make it this time, in response to a Politico report.
Citing two people aware of the matter, the report says the pope was warned before his admission that he was so unwell he was vulnerable to dying if he refused to go to hospital.
He’s described as becoming increasingly nervous by his health that he has moved to wrap up key initiatives and ensure sympathetic figures remain in key posts should a papal election be on the horizon.
Considered one of those is claimed to be Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, whose term as dean of the College of Cardinals was prolonged days before Franics went into hospital.
The term of the vice-dean, Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 81, also was prolonged.
As depicted within the film ‘Conclave’, the dean of the College of Cardinals plays a key role within the lifetime of the Catholic hierarchy.
What’s a conclave and the way does it work?
On the death of the pope, the chair of St Peter is asserted vacant – sede vacante in Latin.
The papal funeral might be celebrated inside 4 to 6 days, followed by nine days of mourning and special Masses.
During that point, cardinals from everywhere in the world who’ve travelled into Rome gather for a series of meetings often called ‘general congregations’.
While all cardinals can take part in these discussions, only those under the age of 80 are eligible to vote for the brand new pope within the Sistine Chapel.
Once the oath of secrecy is taken, the master of liturgical ceremonies gives the order ‘Extra omnes’ (everyone out) and all those not participating within the conclave leave the frescoed partitions of the chapel.
An elderly cardinal stays and reads a meditation concerning the qualities a pope must have and the challenges facing the church, after which he and the master of ceremonies leave the cardinals to start voting.
On the primary day, the cardinals take part in a gap Mass and an initial vote takes place within the evening, often taken as a symbolic poll wherein voters name someone they’ve particular admiration for.
From then on, there are two sessions day by day – one within the morning and one other within the afternoon – each comprising two votes.
The cardinals are instructed to mask their very own handwriting while completing a card inscribed ‘Eligo in Summum Pontificem’ – ‘I elect as Supreme Pontiff’.
They approach the altar one after the other and say: ‘I call as my witness, Christ the Lord who might be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I believe ought to be elected.’
The folded ballot is placed on a round plate and slid into an oval urn.
After the votes are counted and the outcomes announced, the papers are certain along with a needle and thread, each ballot pierced through the word ‘Eligo’.
Then they’re burned with a chemical to send black smoke (meaning no latest pope) or white (meaning yes, a pope has been chosen) out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney.
He’s some extent of reference for his fellow cardinals and a vital figure in the course of the transition between one papacy and the following.
After a pope dies or resigns, the dean runs the key meetings where cardinals discuss the needs of the church and the qualities a future pope should have, after which organises the conclave balloting within the Sistine Chapel.
Once a brand new pope is elected, it’s the dean who asks the winner if he accepts the job, and the name he desires to be called.
As a result of the job’s importance, speculation had swirled about who might take Re’s place after his five-year term ended last month.
In a 2019 reform, Francis had imposed a once-renewable, five-year term limit on the job which until then had been an appointment for all times. Given Re’s age and the trials of the eventual job of running a conclave, it was expected that he would get replaced.
Possible contenders included Sandri and Francis’s number two, Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
There was no word if Francis’ extension of Re’s mandate, decided January 7 but only announced last week, was for one more full five-year term or was just a brief extension.
In keeping with the 2019 reform, the dean’s five-year term could also be ‘renewable if needed’, but doesn’t explicitly provide for a mere extension.
Previous deans have been a few of the most influential cardinals within the church, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected Pope Benedict XVI after presiding over the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.
The Politico report claims the following conclave might be highly political.
It comes after Francis issued a significant rebuke to the Trump administration’s plans for the mass deportation of migrants.
He took the extraordinary step of addressing the crackdown in a letter to US bishops which appeared to take direct aim at Vice President JD Vance.
US border czar Tom Homan immediately pushed back, noting that the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by partitions and that Francis should leave border enforcement to his office.
The Politico report says the White House’s furious response raises the prospect that the election of the following successor to St Peter might be a highly politicised event.
One Vaticanista said of the Trump administration: ‘They’ve already influenced European politics, they’d haven’t any problem influencing the conclave. They may be in search of someone less confrontational.’
The Argentine Jesuit and President Donald Trump have long sparred over migration, including before Trump’s first administration when Francis in 2016 famously said anyone who builds a wall to maintain out migrants was ‘not a Christian’.
Vance, a Catholic convert, has defended the administration’s America-first crackdown by citing an idea from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as ‘ordo amoris’.
He has said the concept delineates a hierarchy of care — to family first, followed by neighbour, community, fellow residents and lastly those elsewhere.
In his letter, Francis appeared to correct Vance’s understanding of the concept.
‘Christian love isn’t a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other individuals and groups,’ he wrote.
‘The true ordo amoris that have to be promoted is that which we discover by meditating always on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”, that’s, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.’
David Gibson, director of the centre for religion and culture at Fordham University, said in a social media post that Francis’ letter ‘takes aim at each absurd theological claim by JD Vance and his allies in conservative Catholicism (and the Catholic electorate)’.
Vance’s reference to the ordo amoris had won support from many on the Catholic right within the US, including the Catholic League, which said he was right concerning the hierarchy of Christian love.
Health concerns are hardly a novelty for people nearing 90, especially those with Francis’s work ethic.
While Francis uses a wheelchair and suffers regular wintertime bouts of respiratory problems he has shown little signs of slowing down.
In its latest updates on his condition yesterday, the Vatican said recent tests revealed the pope is battling ‘a polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract, which has led to an additional modification of the therapy’.
‘All tests conducted as much as today are indicative of a posh clinical situation that can require an appropriate hospital stay,’ it said.
In a night update, the Vatican said Francis was in ‘stable’ condition, with no fever.
Despite his illness, Francis has stayed involved with Gaza’s lone Catholic parish – a routine he has maintained for the reason that start of the war in October 2023.
‘He told us, “I’m not well” and you might see he was drained,’ Father Gabriel Romanelli, the local priest based within the enclave, told Italian public broadcaster Rai a couple of video call he had with Francis on Saturday.
Father Romanelli, a fellow Argentine, quoted Francis as saying: ‘A couple of days (in hospital) and I’ll be back.’
He said he also quipped that he was ‘not a simple patient for doctors, because he’s all the time talking, all the time very energetic’.
The Vatican said Francis did some work and browse papers on Monday.
Dr Maor Sauler, who specialises in adult pulmonary medicine and significant care at Yale School of Medicine, said it’s not unusual for people affected by bronchitis to develop an infection with a couple of organism of their lungs.
The priority, nevertheless, is that antibiotics and other drug therapies don’t work in isolation and require the body to reply, which given Francis’s other problems may make recovery tougher.
‘Being older, wheelchair-bound, all those are risk aspects for a situation wherein we are able to’t treat it despite our greatest efforts,’ said Sauler, who isn’t involved in Francis’s care.
Dr Nick Hopkinson, medical director of the Asthma + Lung UK foundation, who’s similarly not involved in treating the pope, said: It’s in the general public record that he’s had chest problems up to now, he’s been admitted to hospital with pneumonia (in 2023), he’s had a part of one lung removed.
‘All of that makes him a little bit bit more vulnerable potentially, but we just should wait and see.’
He said that after doctors have identified clinically what’s incorrect, they will start treating the underlying infection with the right therapies.
Pilgrims visiting the Vatican on Monday offered their hopes that Francis would get well soon.
‘We definitely wish for him to improve in a short time,’ said Reverend Tyler Carter, a Catholic priest from america. ‘He’s our father and our shepherd, and so we would like his continued health and blessing.’
Manuel Rossi, a tourist from Milan, Italy, said he was ‘quite nervous’ when the pope cancelled his appearance on Sunday.
‘I’m 18 years old, so I even have seen few popes in my life, and am very near him,’ he said. ‘I hope he recovers as soon as possible.’
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