ROME and LONDON — Pope Francis in a prayer published on Sunday thanked Gemelli Hospital’s doctors and medical staff “for the attention with which they are taking care of me.”
The prayer — the pope’s weekly Angelus — was dispatched from the hospital in Rome, where the pope was resting early Sunday after a “quiet” night, the Vatican said in a brief statement.
“The night was quiet, the pope is still resting,” the Vatican’s press office said.
Francis in his prayer to followers said he felt “all your affection and closeness,” adding that he felt “as if I am ‘carried’ and supported by all God’s people.”
“I feel in my heart the ‘blessing’ that is hidden within frailty, because it is precisely in these moments that we learn even more to trust in the Lord,” he said in the prayer.
He added, “At the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share in body and spirit the condition of so many sick and suffering people.”
Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Gemelli on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.
The 88-year-old pontiff had been in stable condition on Saturday, church officials said, following a bronchospasm attack on Friday.
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