The latest statement suggests that the 88-year-old is able to sit in his chair, eat normally and do what the Vatican calls "light work".

Pope Francis’ complex respiratory infection isn't life-threatening but he's not out of danger, his medical team said Friday, as the 88-year-old pontiff marked his first week in the hospital battling pneumonia in both lungs — along with bacterial,

Pope Francis, who is hospitalized in critical condition with double pneumonia, has named a new archbishop for Vancouver. The Vancouver archdiocese says the Pope appointed Archbishop Richard Smith, who has been serving in Edmonton,

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the results of tests conducted in recent days and Monday indicate the pope is suffering from a “polymicrobial respiratory tract infection” that has necessitated a further change in his drug therapy.

There has long been a Vatican taboo against openly talking about a conclave when a pope is sick: It’s considered gauche to speculate about the election of a new pope while the current one is fighting for his life.

Pope Francis, who has been hospitalised with double pneumonia since February 14, has had a good night, got up this morning and had breakfast, the Vatican said on Friday. (Reporting by Joshua McElwee,

The pope is receiving occasional supplements of oxygen when he needs it and is responding to the strengthened drug therapy he is receiving, they said.

Like his predecessors, Pope Francis was selected using an age-old method -- a system known as the Papal conclave.

Local theology instructor Phil Pillin has looked up to him throughout his entire academic career. He shared how the pope has been a role model for him during his journey. “Pope Francis has been to Pontiff my entire academic high education academic journey — so all my undergrad,

Gandhi’s Scant Garb Bars Audience with Pope.” So read the headline of a New York Times report, from December 13, 1931, that the Vatican had cancelled a meeting between Pius XI and “the Indian nationalist leader” because the Pope thought he might be criticized “if he received the visitor in his usual scanty clothing.