Pope celebrates 12 years on the job in hospital — with cake — but future unclear

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Thursday celebrated his 12th anniversary as the leader of the Catholic Church with cake and with his health slowly improving after a month in the hospital, but his health loomed over his future.

The 88-year-old pontiff was briefly critically ill, struggling against pneumonia in both lungs at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he was first admitted last February 14.

The Argentine cleric’s condition has improved significantly in the months since that moment and he is stable, according to the Vatican — and at least well enough to eat cake.

“He celebrated a bit with health workers who have been assisting him at this time with a cake and candles,” the Vatican press office said late Thursday.

The Holy See said Francis had spent Thursday morning, after prayers and meditations at the Vatican broadcast via videolink without showing himself, as well as his usual treatments and physiotherapy.

From there he prayed and resumed his breathing exercises, it said.

Aside from his cake, no particular ceremonies were planned to mark his anniversary, but the Vatican said he was presented with hundreds of goodwill messages received from schools, religious institutions and young people.

The Vatican press office said it would release another medical bulletin Friday evening but may no longer issue a daily morning update.

Now talk is shifting to when he may return home. But his hospitalization — the most agonizing and extended of his papacy — has led to questions about his capacity to lead the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics.

“A body of 88 years affected by bilateral pneumonia needs time, also in terms of energy, of strength, to recover,” the press office said.

Slowing down –

Francis so far had resisted making any accommodations to his age or more frail health that has forced him to start using a wheelchair three years ago.

He kept a full daily agenda full of activities, punctuated by frequent trips abroad, especially a 12-day trip to the Asia-Pacific region in September, during which he led large open-air masses.

But experts said his recovery may take weeks because of his age and customers health issues, compounded by having half of one lung removed as a young man.

“The rest of his pontificate is a mystery for now, even for Francis himself,” said Father Michel Kubler, a Vatican expert and former editor of the French religious newspaper La Croix.

“He doesn’t know how his life will be once he goes back to the Vatican, and he surely leaves the possibility open of resigning were he unable to handle it anymore,” he told AFP.

Francis has always kept the door open to resigning if his health were to fail him, following in the footsteps of his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign voluntarily.

But the Jesuit has backed away from the notion more recently, maintaining that the job is for life.

During his time recovering in hospital, Francis has delegated mass duties to senior cardinals but has worked on and off, signing decrees and receiving close colleagues.

But he has lost a month of events in the run-up to the 2025 Jubilee, a holy year planned by the pope that is expected to bring an extra 30 million pilgrims to Rome and the Vatican.

And it is difficult to picture him well enough to preside over a full slate of events for Easter, the holiest period in the Christian calendar and less than six weeks away.

Faced with spiraling responsibilities, many say Francis, who has been seen in public for the first time since going into the hospital, must change course.

“This is the end of the pontificate as we knew it so far,” said Kubler.

Unfinished reforms –

When he assumed his post, Francis was a sharply contrasting image to his cerebral predecessor: He rejected the trappings of office and descended among the most disadvantaged in society with his message that the Church was for all.

A former archbishop of Buenos Aires more comfortable with his flock than the cardinals of the Roman Curia, Francis also embarked on sweeping reforms in the Vatican and beyond.

Some of the changes — including reorganising the Vatican’s finances, expanding the role of women and welcoming divorced and LGBTQ members — have been codified into official texts.

But an extensive conversation about the Church’s future, called a Synod, is still underway.

There are also plenty who would like to see his work undone.

His approach has been fiercely resisted by traditionalists and in 2023 an outcry in Africa prompted the Vatican to clarify that it had authorised non-liturgical blessings of same-sex couples.

“Like it or not, he has changed the dial, but a lot is still pending,” said one Vatican source.