Some insight on the Holy Father’s recovery, from Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, via America:
“I think that now a new pope begins,” Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, told journalists this Friday afternoon, March 21. Before a book presentation in Rome, the cardinal said that Pope Francis “is a man of surprises and surely he will have learned many things” during his stay of more than a month in Gemelli Hospital, “and who knows what he will bring out of the hat!”
Cardinal Fernández said Pope Francis is “physically really well” but still “needs rehabilitation.” Asked if he believed the pope would resign, the Argentine cardinal, who is very close to Francis, dismissed the idea: “I truly do not believe it. That no!”
Addressing the question of resignation again after the presentation, the cardinal said: “As far as I know the hypothesis of resignation was never taken into consideration. Instead, I believe that this time of pain, tiredness and limits is the beginning of a new phase that will be fruitful and will be part of this pontificate.”
Asked if the pope would be back in the Vatican for Easter, the cardinal responded cautiously: “He would like to come back, but the doctors want to be 100 percent sure [before allowing this] and prefer to wait a little because he has his way of life. He wants to give everything.”
After the presentation, the cardinal said, regarding the pope being back for Easter: “I don’t think so. I don’t know.”
The cardinal said that the pope wants to use the time he has left in service to the church, not to “heal himself.” Moreover, when he returns to the Vatican, “it’s not easy for him to follow the [doctors’] advice.”
Cardinal Fernández made clear, however, that Pope Francis’ situation after this hospitalization will not be the same as before. “His life will certainly have to change [when he returns to the Vatican], but I cannot give details,” the cardinal said, indicating that a new phase of the papacy will begin.
“Now he needs rehabilitation because a long time [receiving] high-flow oxygenation dries you up and you almost have to learn to speak again. He has little strength in his voice, and so he needs therapy, time to recover the strength of his voice, also the muscles, because he has been too long without moving…and that’s the stage that comes now.”
