MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pope has kidney failure in addition to bout of asthma

A rosary will be prayed later Monday at St Peter's Square to beg for Francis' recovery

The latest medical reports on 88-year-old Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized since Feb. 14, at Rome's Policlinico Gemelli due to a respiratory infection, now mentioned “kidney failure” and a bout of asthma. Vatican sources said he slept well on Sunday night, in good spirits, eating normally and experiencing no pain. However, a rosary is to be held Monday at St Peter's Square at 9 pm Rome's time for the prompt recovery of the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires and the ill. The event will be presided over by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

“It is a way of demonstrating the Church's closeness to the Pope and to the sick,” Vatican Spokesman Matteo Bruni explained.

Given Francis' illness and age, rumors are mounting worldwide on who could be his successor. The Argentine-born Monsignor Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the first non-European Pontiff in centuries and many believe the trend will continue.

One of the main candidates on social media is Cardinal Robert Sarahh, who would become the first African pope since Gelasius I in the fifth century. However, Sarah was born on June 15, 1945, in Ourous, Guinea. In other words, Francis would need to die or abdicate before that date because candidates must be below 80 years of age at the time of their appointment.

Cardinal Sarahh is a traditional and orthodox-minded former senior Vatican official, who has now retired but remains active on social media with large scores of admirers worldwide. His X (ex-Twitter) account has over 140,000 followers.

Born to parents who converted to Christianity from animism, Sarahh was ordained priest on July 20, 1969, in Conakry, where he was Archbishop in 1979 by John Paul II at the age of 34, making him the youngest bishop in the world. As archbishop, he lived under the Marxist dictatorship of Ahmed Sékou Touré, who put Sarahh on a hit list. Benedict XVI appointed Sarahh president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum in 2010 and elevated him to cardinal the same year. He took part in the 2013 conclave that elected Francis, who made him prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a position he held until his retirement in 2021. He speaks French, Italian and English fluently.

Cardinal Sarah's 2019 book From the Depths of Our Hearts, co-written with Benedict XVI on the crisis of the priesthood and in defense of priestly celibacy, further cemented his image as a faithful and orthodox Church leader.

In July 2022, the influential French weekly magazine Paris-Match published a six-page report under the title “Who is Cardinal Sarah,” with a cover portrait of the Guinean prelate.