Pope's return from hospital coincides with Vatican conference on aging

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Even though its focus was mainly scientific, a Vatican-sponsored conference on aging and longevity could not ignore the ongoing convalescence of 88-year-old Pope Francis.

The pope returned to the Vatican March 23 after more than five weeks in Rome’s Gemelli hospital, but his doctors have prescribed two months of a drastically reduced schedule to allow him to recuperate.

For Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and co-sponsor of the “Vatican Longevity Summit,” questions about Pope Francis’ ability to fulfill his ministry far from the public eye is one of the key points of the conference.

The “gigantic contradiction” in Western societies, he told reporters March 24, is that people see a higher average life span as a sign of progress while also either ignoring the elderly or considering them a burden unless they are clearly making something, doing something or saying something.

“Pope Francis has shown us that old age is fragile, and that fragility must not be denied,” the archbishop said. “In my opinion, the pope has offered us an extraordinary magisterium in these days, not with his words, but with this body,” teaching people “that we are all fragile and we must care for one another.”

Dr. Giulio Maira, a neurosurgeon and researcher focused on degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, was asked to comment on Pope Francis’ condition.

While he insisted he never followed the pope as a physician, but only as a Catholic, it was clear the pope had been close to death with his breathing crises and his infections.

“Obviously, he is weak physically,” the doctor said, and he should obey his doctors’ orders to rest, continue his therapy and avoid meeting large groups of people so that he does not get another infection.

“However,” he told reporters, “I want to point out something that really struck me yesterday: the sensitivity and lucidity of the pope,” specifically when Pope Francis barely audibly thanked some 1,000 people gathered outside Rome’s Gemelli hospital and then pointed to “the woman with the yellow flowers,” Carmela Mancuso, who is in her late 70s.

“With a thousand people under his window, he thanked a person who brought flowers. The number of people there did not matter, what mattered was a gesture of care,” he said. “In other words, his sensitivity, his intelligence, his ability to analyze is still intact.”

Asked what advice he would give the pope, the doctor replied: “First, he must follow his doctors’ orders precisely,” perhaps holding meetings online when he is feeling better rather than meeting people in person because his health is “certainly very fragile.”

“The second point is that the pope has an illness in his body, not his mind, so he must continue to use his mind,” the doctor said. He should find something interesting and challenging to read “to keep his brain active.”