I’m counting the days when our 88-year-old Pontiff recovers fully from this stressful bout he’s having with double pneumonia having invaded both lungs of His Holiness. May he soon be freed by this terrorist, pneumonia!
This prolonged pneumonia has affected, sometimes crippled Pope Francis’s breathing, requiring him to stay in hospital spending nights on mechanical ventilation and occasionally back on a high-flow oxygen mask.
I pray Saint Bernardine of Siena, the patron saint of respiratory illnesses and chest problems, is at his bedside just as he helped the sick during a plague in Siena, Italy in 1400 before ordained a priest, then canonized as a saint.
Now we need our Pontiff more than ever as a modern plague called climate change affects our air quality, increasing ground-level ozone, particulate matter, even wildfire smoke and other contaminants that may find their way to our vulnerable lungs.
Soon Pope Fracis, although ever alert, won’t be able to participate in events planned to mark Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the six-week period that leads to Easter.
I hate to think of our Pope having such difficulty breathing after breathing so much life into his flock and into Catholics and his many followers, including Arabs, Jews and Christians throughout the world.
Can Congested Lungs Pray?
I know our hearts and minds have religion, but I never thought how spiritually our hard-working lungs are today ever confronting unhealthful stuff in the air, much of it from carbon emissions.
We say we love God with all our heart. We recite prayers ever ready in our minds for the right occasion when we want to call out to our lord and savior Jesus Christ, or to his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary or his dutiful dad, St. Joseph.
And we strive to keep our minds free of evil thoughts. But I never thought about our lungs, which may be totally agnostic and in need of a kind of lung baptism.
I’m sure Pope Francis never inhaled anything sinful, yet there seems to be no confession for lungs, or absolution as there is for when we think wrong thoughts or for when our heart craves for something or someone they shouldn’t.
The Pontiff has been in hospital since February receiving treatment for this vile persistent pneumonia.
Thank God, the Pontiff is free from fever and according to the Vatican he’s ever alert, co-operative with receiving therapies well-oriented. Most important, His Holiness is stable after suffering episodes of respiratory failure.
Meanwhile, the Pope’s traditional Wednesday audience with Catholics was cancelled for the third week and he probably won’t be where he normally is this time of year, but we’ll be praying for his full recovery coming hopefully sooner than later.
May this terrorist pneumonia soon release its hostage, our beloved Pope Francis.
Tom Madden is an author and perennial publicist for good causes, one of them being the Pope’s returning to good health so he can continue his important mission as the Pontiff. Madden was raised as a Catholic and briefly was even an altar boy, albeit a clumsy one he admits as he was a bit careless and ever kibitzing when he was young. These days he does most of his praying to Jesus at home than he used to when kneeling in a church pew, but his heart, mind and now even his lungs are devoutly Christian.