Pope Francis suffers further setback with two new episodes of respiratory crises

Pope Francis suffered two new acute breathing crises on Monday and has been put back on ventilation, the Vatican said – showing the 88-year-old’s struggle with pneumonia is far from over.

The pontiff also underwent two lung scans and is suffering from congestion in his chest.

Since he entered hospital on 14 February with a complex lung infection, no photos or videos have been released of him, in what is now the longest absence of his 12-year papacy.

Francis had inhaled “copious” amounts of mucus in another setback in what has become a more than two-week battle to overcome a complex respiratory infection and pneumonia.

In a late update on Monday, the Vatican said the episodes were caused by a “significant accumulation” of mucus in his lungs and bronchial spasms.

“Two bronchoscopies were performed with the need for aspiration of copious secretions,” the Vatican said.

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The pope remains alert and has spoken and cooperated with his doctors and nursing staff.

Earlier on Monday, Francis issued a new message from the hospital as Vatican officials begged him to let his voice be heard after disappearing from public view as he recovers.

He denounced the “progressive irrelevance” of international organisations to combat war as he remained at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

A statement said that he was in a stable condition, was up, had breakfast and was receiving therapies after sleeping “well all night long”, the Vatican said.

Since entering hospital, the Vatican has provided brief, twice-daily medical updates on his condition and he has begun to sign off on documents with “From Gemelli Polyclinic”, in a sign that he is still working.

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While he is recuperating out of public view, there have been growing calls for him to use his voice during a tumultuous period of global uncertainty, with one of his closest friends, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia stressing: “We need men like him who are truly universal, and not only one sided.”

Francis wrote a message to the Vatican’s annual bioethics academy, dated 26 February, in which he lamented that international organisations are increasingly ineffective and undermined by “short-sighted attitudes concerned with protecting particular and national interests”.

The pope has also repeatedly called for peace between Russia and Ukraine while trying to maintain the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic neutrality – and has tried to achieve a similar balancing act for Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the Vatican ambassador to the Baltics, said the faithful needed to hear his voice at a time when war is raging in Europe.

“Pope Francis’s voice is of vital importance for all the world because he’s the only authority who speaks of peace, who condemns war, all the wars underway starting with Ukraine,” la Repubblica quoted Archbishop Ganswein as saying.

The Catholic leader is susceptible to lung infections due to pleurisy he developed as a young adult, which resulted in the removal of part of one lung.

Double pneumonia, a severe infection affecting both lungs, can cause inflammation and scarring, leading to breathing difficulties.