Mexican painter Roberto Marquez places a painting of Pope Francis he made outside the Agostino Gemelli hospital in Rome, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
VATICAN CITY – The Catholic Church opened the solemn Lenten season leading to Easter on Wednesday without the participation of Pope Francis, who was in the third week of hospital treatment for double pneumonia.
A cardinal took the pope’s place leading a short penitential procession between two churches on the Aventine Hill, and opened an Ash Wednesday homily prepared for the pontiff with words of solidarity and thanks for Francis.
“We feel deeply united with him in this moment,” Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said. ”And we thank him for the offering of his prayer and his suffering for the good of the entire church in all the world.”
Health update
In its latest update on Francis’ health, the Vatican said that the pope rested well overnight, waking up shortly after 8 a.m. after a second night sleeping with the ventilation mask. Francis remained in stable condition, with a guarded prognosis, meaning he was not out of danger.
The 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, had two respiratory crises on Monday in a setback to his recovery.
On Tuesday, he was breathing with just the help of supplemental oxygen after respiratory crises a day earlier, but resumed using a ventilation mask at night, the Vatican said.
Francis’ hospitalization began on Feb. 14 and is the longest of his 12-year papacy.
Ash Wednesday
Francis’ treatment continues as the Vatican prepares for Lent, the solemn period beginning with Ash Wednesday and leading up to Easter on April 20. A cardinal has been designated to take Francis’ place at Vatican celebrations, with a traditional service and procession in Rome
On Ash Wednesday, observant Catholics receive a sign of the cross in ashes on their foreheads, a gesture that underscores human mortality. It is an obligatory day of fasting and abstinence for Catholics that signals the start of Christianity’s most penitent season.
