(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis was hospitalized for 38 days at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome to treat double pneumonia. Thanks be to God, he got better and returned to the Vatican, to his usual place in the Casa Santa Marta.
I have prayed a lot for the Pope, for the health of his body and soul. In the present life body and soul are intimately connected; as Aristotle taught, “the soul is the form of the body.” In a Sunday Angelus address, Francis invited us to live Lent “as a period of healing” that he is experiencing “in body and soul.”
The fragility of the vicar of Christ, unadorned in full view of everyone when he left the Gemelli, barely able to raise his arms, with sunken eyes, a swollen face, and visible signs that he was having trouble breathing, constitutes – as he himself said – “an important lesson for both older adults and young people that must be accepted because it is part of the human condition.”
Young people become closed in on themselves if they do not understand that they too are fragile. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, was referring to the Pope when he said, “It is fundamental to his ministry of inclusion that he preaches against treating marginalized people as disposable.”
READ: Pope Francis shows continued improvement 12 days into Vatican rest period
The soul of a pope is especially inscrutable. First of all, it is the soul of a human person with his own thoughts and feelings. In Francis’ case, he carries the burden of his formation in the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), which he was provincial superior of, and at the end of that period his victims (I apologize for using this term) banished him to Córdoba.
I was a bishop, an auxiliary to Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, several months before Francis became one. When he was in turn appointed, I called him in Córdoba to congratulate him. He told me that “the Cardinal pulled me out of a 20-meter abyss.” I was the zonal vicar of Belgrano and he was the vicar of Flores. Then he was vicar general and coadjutor. Upon the cardinal’s death, he became archbishop of Buenos Aires and was created a cardinal. Then after the resignation of Benedict XVI he was elected pope.
The health of the soul of a Supreme Pontiff consists in taking charge of Tradition. The current Pope, as I have already written elsewhere, is an enemy of Tradition and of those he considers traditionalists. The health of his soul is failing and no longer easy to cure. His days are in the hands of God more than ever before, and it is likely that he will continue to speak about human things as a “global leader,” which is what journalists consider him to be. As is proper to the papal office, he reaches the hearts of the faithful when he exhorts them to the love of Jesus and Mary.
The bishop of Rome’s role has changed throughout Church history based on the circumstances of the times; it has often acquired a political value of the highest magnitude. However, the most valid and intrinsic dimension remains continuity with the role of Peter. Perhaps the political value of the pope depends on his status as the successor of Peter. It earned him recognition by kings and emperors in Christian times, but in today’s world his role cannot mimic that of a globalist leader. Jesus’ command remains that all peoples – panta ta ethnē – should receive the Good News, the Gospel, until He returns.
Héctor Aguer
Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata
Buenos Aires, Tuesday, April 8, 2025
