Pope Francis' health improves; 12th anniversary of election to be marked today

Vatican City, March 13
Thursday marked the 12th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics and there was some good news for his followers as his health showed improvement.

The 88-year-old Pope who is revered by the 2.4 billion Christians of the world, will mark his anniversary as election as the 266th Pope, from Rome’s Gemelli hospital where he has been treated for double pneumonia for almost a month.

The Holy See hasn't said how the anniversary, a public holiday in the Vatican, might be commemorated.

However, there was good news regarding the health of the Holy Father as a latest bulletin from the Vatican, that was released on the eve of the 12th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, said that his condition was improving and he was no longer in immediate danger.

Pope Francis' recovery from double pneumonia continued on Wednesday as a chest X-ray confirmed improvement, two days after doctors declared that he is no longer in imminent danger of death.

However, there was no news of when the Pope would be discharged from hospital and even though the medical bulletin said his condition was stable now it gave a complex picture regarding his overall fragile health condition.

Media reports said that on Wednesday Pope Francis followed its spiritual retreat remotely, and resumed physical and respiratory therapy after a quiet night of rest at the hospital.

On Friday Pope Francis will mark four weeks of hospitalization as he continues to receive high flows of oxygen through nasal tubes during the day, and a non-invasive mechanical mask to aid his rest at night.

The Pope’s weekly Wednesday general audience was canceled since the Vatican hierarchy is on retreat this week as part of the Lenten spiritual exercises that have been a mainstay of the Jesuit pope's pontificate.