Catholics pray for ailing Pope Francis at Sunday Mass

Roman Catholics worldwide prayed on Feb 23 for Pope Francis, who is hospitalised in critical condition, after the Vatican announced that he was “not out of danger.”

Pope Francis, 88, was admitted to a hospital in Rome on Feb 14 with an infection that developed into pneumonia in both lungs. He had a long “asthmatic respiratory crisis” on Feb 22 that required “high flows of oxygen” and a blood transfusion, the Vatican said.

Pope Francis has been the spiritual leader of almost 1.4 billion Roman Catholics around the world since 2013. And around the world, there have been prayers for his recovery.

At the Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, South Korea, Pat Santos, a tourist from the Philippines, described the pope as “the symbol of Christianity.”

The Vatican said on Feb 23 morning that the Pope had had a restful night, without providing further details about his condition.

“Pneumonia is a serious illness for his age, that’s why we should be worried,” said Mr Santos, 31, who was visiting South Korea with his family. “May he recover very well so that he can enjoy his retirement.”

Pope Francis has suffered damage to his lungs in the past, and in recent days, a few cardinals have openly spoken about the possibility of him resigning, as his predecessor, Benedict XVI, did in 2013.

Doctors had said on Feb 21 that Pope Francis would remain in the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli hospital in Rome for at least another week. They had said he was in critical condition on Feb 21, too, but the announcement on Feb 22 indicated a more complicated situation.

There were prayers for the pope during Sunday services in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as in Sydney and Melbourne in Australia; in the Philippines, where almost 80 per cent of the population