Pope Francis follows the spiritual exercises of Lent from the hospital by videoconference

Pope Francis participated this afternoon by videoconference in the spiritual exercises of Lent that the preacher of the Pontifical House, Roberto Pasolini, directed the cardinals of the Roman curia in the classroom VI of the Vatican.

Although there was no direct interaction with him, the pontiff carefully followed the meditation, which started this Sunday and will conclude on March 14, according to Vatican sources.

The clinical conditions of the Holy Father continue stable, since there have been no new respiratory crises. In any case, the general diagnostic picture remains complex, so doctors have preferred to maintain the reserved prognosis.

Pope Francis received this morning the Eucharist in the chapel adjacent to his room at the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital, as confirmed by the same sources. This means that he still cannot celebrate it.

In addition, this morning he was visited by two of his main collaborators, who help him in the government of the Universal Church.

The Vatican framed the visit of the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the substitute, Édgar Peña Parra – the third since he was hospitalized – in a work meeting that served to update it “of the situation of the church and the world”, explained from the Vatican.

Pope Francis did not receive visits for exactly one week, so the meeting has been performed as a good sign.

The absence of the Pope is not “total”

In an interview with the Vatican news portal Vatican Newsthe Capuchino friar Roberto Pasolini, 53, and since November 2024 preacher of the Pontifical House, said that, despite his hospitalization in the Gemelli Polyclinic of Rome, Pope Francis is present during the Spiritual Exercises of Lent.

“The absence of the Pope will not be a complete absence, in the first place because we will meet in prayer for him with greater intensity. And then because its very absence will mean an evocative word for us, ”he said.

“Obviously, the Holy Father will not be able to participate as he would have liked this disease. However, his absence will not be a total absence, ”he said.

He also explained that the suffering he is currently suffering from the Holy Father, 88 and admitted to the hospital for 24 days with bilateral pneumonia, is “deeply evocative.”

“His testimony joins all the testimonies of people who, in silence, in hiding, in all parts of the world, live the same mystery of suffering, but also of evil because of wars, violence and death.

So his is a suffering · deeply suggestive, also because all these people are always in the words, in the heart and in the prayers of the Holy Father, ”said Pasolini.

The central theme of the spiritual exercises of this year is the hope of eternal life, a concept that, according to Pasolini, is “the very heart of Christian hope.”