Pope Francis’ health stays critical but stable as Vatican starts nightly prayers in St. Peter’s Square

Vatican City — Pope Francis remained in critical but stable condition Tuesday evening, with his blood parameters remaining stable as he works from the hospital while battling double pneumonia, the Vatican said.

The Vatican’s update said the 88-year-old pope underwent a follow-up CAT scan Tuesday evening to check the lung infection. But it provided no details of what the scan showed, suggesting the results weren’t back yet. Doctors said he hadn’t had any further respiratory crises, and that his prognosis remained guarded.

“In the morning, after receiving the Eucharist, he resumed work activities,” the Vatican statement said.

Vatican sources had said the pope’s condition remained the same Tuesday morning as it had been the previous evening, and that he had been able to get out of bed and eat breakfast on his own.

The Vatican had said that the pope was well enough to meet with the Vatican secretary of state to approve new decrees for possible saints. That suggested he is getting essential work done and looking ahead despite being hospitalized in critical condition.

The Vatican’s Tuesday noon bulletin contained a series of significant decisions, most importantly that Francis had met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the Vatican “substitute” or chief of staff. It was the first known time the pope had met with Parolin, who is essentially the Vatican prime minister, since his Feb. 14 hospitalization.

During the audience, Francis approved decrees for two new saints and five people for beatification — the first step toward possible sainthood. Francis also decided to “convene a consistory about the future canonizations.”

Francis regularly approves decrees from the Vatican’s saint-making office when he is at the Vatican, albeit during audiences with the head of the office, not Parolin. A consistory, which is a formal meeting of cardinals, to set the dates for the canonizations is a necessary ceremonial step in that saint-making process, but the announcement of it was also forward-looking, given his illness.

No date was set for the meeting. But it was also at a banal consistory to set dates for canonizations on Feb. 11, 2013, that Pope Benedict XVI announced, in Latin, that he would resign because he couldn’t keep up with the rigors of the papacy. Francis has said he, too, would consider resigning after Benedict “opened the door” and became the first pope in 600 years to retire.

In addition to the audience with Parolin, the Vatican released Francis’ message for Lent, the period leading up to Easter, in yet another forward-looking sign. In a subsequent bulletin, Francis named a handful of new bishops for Brazil, a new archbishop for Vancouver and modified the law for the Vatican City State to create a new hierarchy.

Many if not all of these decisions were likely in the works for some time. But the Vatican has said that Francis has been doing some work in the hospital, including signing documents.

On Tuesday morning, the Vatican’s typically brief morning update said: “The pope slept well, all night.”

Doctors said Monday evening he remained in critical condition with double pneumonia but reported a “slight improvement” in some laboratory results. In the most upbeat bulletin in days, they said he had resumed work from his hospital room, calling a parish in Gaza City that he’s kept in touch with since the war there began.

After night fell, thousands of faithful gathered in a rain-soaked, chilly St. Peter’s Square for the first of a nightly recitation of the Rosary. The prayer evoked the 2005 vigils when St. John Paul II was dying in the Apostolic Palace, but those on hand said they were praying for Francis’ recovery.

Standing on the same stage where Francis usually presides, the Vatican secretary of state said that ever since Francis had been hospitalized, a chorus of prayers for his recovery had swelled up from around the world.

“Starting this evening, we want to unite ourselves publicly to this prayer here, in his house,” Parolin said, praying that Francis “in this moment of illness and trial” would recover quickly.

The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed as a young man, and doctors have said his condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease.

But in Monday’s update, they said he hadn’t had any more respiratory crises since Saturday and the flow and concentration of supplemental oxygen has been slightly reduced. The slight kidney insufficiency detected Sunday wasn’t causing alarm at the moment, doctors said, while saying his prognosis remained guarded.

Still, the mood was mostly grim in the monumental square, with many of the roughly 4,000 assembled understanding they may be in Rome for Francis’ final days. Crowds sat under umbrellas on folding chairs or stood by the vast colonnades as they reflected fondly on the pontiff’s legacy.

“To see him suffer hurts,” said Robert Pietro, a Romanian seminarian who stood at the prayer holding a small, fragrant candle in tribute. “But we also pray in thanksgiving for what he has done for the Church.”

Roberto Allison, a priest from the Mexican state of Guadalajara, said members of his community had come together to show appreciation for “all that we have learned from him.”

Stopping to deliver personal blessings to some at the end of the ceremony, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said the crowd’s diversity — many world languages could be heard spoken — was “a big sign of comfort” for the Catholic Church.

A couple of Catholic tourists from Chicago, who arrived holding umbrellas well before the service started, said they prayed for the pope at daily Mass earlier at St. Peter’s Basilica, and decided to come back. Like many, they found it “hard to process” they may be in Rome for Francis’ final days.

“No one knows the day and time, but it’s a historic moment nonetheless,” said Edward Burjek.

It felt the same for Hatzumi Villanueva of Peru. She was particularly fond of former pope St. John Paul II but said Francis, as the first Latin American pope, “draws a bit closer.”

“We came to pray for the pope, that he may recover soon, for the great mission he’s sharing with his message of peace,” said Villanueva, who praised his empathy for migrants.

Francis’ papacy has also emphasized the defense of the environment and partial openness to LGBTQ+ rights.

Outside the Vatican, Romans, pilgrims and even non-Catholics said they were offering special prayers for the hospitalized pope.

“We are all sorry,” said Raniero Mancinelli, who has tailored ceremonial clothing for Francis and the two previous popes in his shop just outside the Vatican’s walls.

Elisabetta Zumbo carried a 5-foot-long cross down a cordoned-off section of the street leading to St. Peter’s as she prepared to lead a group of 34 pilgrims from the northern Italian city of Piacenza. With the rain pouring down, she pledged her group would pray intensely for the pope.

“There is a lot of emotion and a lot of sadness,” Zumbo said.

Nearby, a couple from London visiting St. Peter’s with their son said that even though they’re not Catholic, they felt close to the pontiff “being there in his home” in the monumental basilica.