‘Less Than 72 Hours’ vs. ‘Slight Improvement’: Conflicting Reports on Francis’ Condition

The final days of Jorge Bergoglio…

‘Less Than 72 Hours’ vs. ‘Slight Improvement’: Conflicting Reports on Francis’ Condition, Prognosis Still Uncertain

Will be facing his particular judgment soon: Jorge Bergoglio (aka ‘Pope Francis’)

The Vatican’s Feb. 24 morning update on Jorge Bergoglio’s health read: “The night went well; the Pope slept and is resting.”

The Feb. 24 evening update, which came a bit earlier than usual, consisted of the following information:

The Holy Father’s clinical conditions in their critical state show a slight improvement.

No episodes of asthmatic respiratory crisis have occurred today; some laboratory tests have improved.

The monitoring of the mild renal insufficiency shows no cause for concern. Oxygen therapy continues, albeit with slightly reduced flow and oxygen percentage.

The doctors, in view of the complexity of the clinical picture, are cautiously not yet releasing the prognosis. In the morning, he received the Eucharist, and in the afternoon, he resumed his work activities.

In the evening, he called the parish priest of the Gaza parish to express his paternal closeness. Pope Francis thanked all the people of God who have gathered to pray for his health in recent days.

(Source: Vatican Press Office / see also Vatican News)

This was in stark contrast to credible rumors that had been floating around online earlier in the day:

“A source in Rome, which will remain anonymous here, communicated to a mutual US contact yesterday that doctors are currently giving the pope a 20% survival prognosis”, the Rev. Kevin Cusick wrote on his blog at 9:46 am Eastern time.

Approximately 20 minutes later, Luigi Casalini of the Messa in Latino blog posted on Twitter/X: “Salute Francesco, nostrefonti. 14:25 Gemelli. ‘Dall’equipe dicono non più di 72h’.” Which translates as: “Francis’ health, [according to] our sources: 2:25 pm Gemelli. ‘The team says no more than 72 hours [to live]'”.

Roughly two hours after that, EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo concurred on the same platform: “I am now hearing similar reports from the Gemelli clinic. Pray for Francis”.

Francis has been in the Agostino Gemelli Hospital in Rome since Feb. 14. Today the clinic’s chaplain, Rev. Nunzio Corrao, led a prayer service for Francis and urged attendees to “hope against all hope” for Francis (cf. Rom 4:18), according to Newsweek, relying on a report by the Italian ANSA.

Trying to make sense of the conflicting reports, Life Site‘s senior Vatican correspondent Michael Haynes observes: “Despite the often surprisingly brief statements from the Vatican, which have attempted to portray a note of optimism about Pope Francis’ health, it appears undeniable that his condition has in fact steadily worsened since he arrived in the hospital.”

For his weekly blog MondayVatican, Andrea Gagliarducci discusses the facts — and the narratives — of Francis’ illness.

The officially NovusOrdo-excommunicated ‘Archbishop’ Carlo Maria Viganò published a statement today in which he made new explosive allegations against Bergoglio:

After years of lies, dissimulations, and silence, it is necessary to acknowledge Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s fraud and put him on trial, restoring that truth and justice demanded by the victims of his reprisals, his intimidating acts, and his connivance in the crimes of his instigators and his protégés. Investigations are needed into his past life, into the crimes he committed in Argentina (which is why he never returned as “pope” to his native country) and into the murky events that allege Jorge Mario Bergoglio was personally responsible for the sexual abuse of young Jesuits when he was Novice Master in Argentina. It must be clarified whether Tomas Ricardo Arizaga (known as Tomasito), who died on 20 July 2014 at the age of 11, and who was then cremated and buried in 2019 in the Teutonic Cemetery in the Vatican after having had his teeth removed, is really Bergoglio’s son, as has been rumored for too long and as multiple elements lead us to believe.

(‘Abp.’ Carlo Maria Viganò, “Lapides Clamabunt”, Feb. 24, 2025)

That is quite an accusation to introduce at this point in time, and it’s one that’s not escaping the secular press.

We did some digging on this and can provide the following background: Tomás Ricardo Arizaga is indeed buried at the Teutonic Cemetery of the Vatican, which is located next to the Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guest house at which Francis has been living since 2013. However, the boy actually died in 2013 (not 2014), just a few months after Francis took office.

The following is a photo of his tombstone, which he shares with two others (photo by Włodzimierz Rędzioch, originally published at niedziela.pl):

The official story is told by Benedetta Capelli in this article published on Dec. 6, 2019, by Vatican News, Italian edition:

• Tomasito: l’angelo che riposa accanto a Papa Francesco [Little Thomas: the angel who rests next to Pope Francis]

Basically, the story is that Tomasito was known to then-‘Cardinal’ Bergoglio in Buenos Aires because he had met him a few times, as he was the nephew of the secretary of the Vicar General there, ‘Msgr.’ Joaquín Mariano Sucunza. After he saw that Bergoglio had become ‘Pope’, the young boy — who knew he was going to die because he was suffering from incurable cancer (leukemia) — made it his last wish to be buried in the Vatican as closely as possible to him. According to Capelli, Arizaga has been buried in the Teutonic Cemetery since 2015, but the question arises why the story was published in late 2019.

In any case, it is a crying shame that his young body was cremated, a practice condemned by the Catholic Church but, of course, permitted by the Vatican II Sect.

At 9:00 pm local time, a Rosary for Francis was prayed in St. Peter’s Square, led by the Vatican Secretary of State, ‘Cardinal’ Pietro Parolin.

Earlier in the day, the ultra-progressivist official German Novus Ordo news portal Katholisch.de had written that only few people were bothering to gather at the Gemelli to pray for Bergoglio: “The condition of the 88-year-old head of the church continues to deteriorate. But the visible sympathy of the public is limited. On Sunday morning, only a few people arrive at the hospital below the Pope’s flat; the number of journalists clearly outweighs the visitors.”

What is very troubling — but not surprising in the Novus Ordo religion, especially after almost 12 years of ‘Pope Francis’ — is how many people are merely praying for Bergoglio’s health, for his recovery, and not that he may have a good death, whenever it may occur: “It is possible to receive from the good Lord the grace of healing, even several times in one’s life, with or without medical intervention, but it is impossible to avoid death and, with it, God’s judgement, which will determine our eternal state”, writes Luisella Scrosati at the Daily Compass.

The excessive focus on temporal life, as if eternal life were all but guaranteed for almost everyone, is very much in line with Bergoglio’s own thinking on the matter. In his autobiography Hope, released last month, the false pope says regarding his own death:

Though I know that He has already given me many blessings, I ask the Lord for just one more: Look after me, let it happen whenever You wish, but, as You know, I’m not very brave when it comes to physical pain… So, please, don’t make me suffer too much.

(Pope Francis, Hope: The Autobiography [Penguin Random House, 2025], p. 195)

Thus speaks a man whose mind is focused on the present world, not a man whose thoughts are mainly anchored in the hereafter.

Notice that Francis doesn’t beg for final perseverance in grace, he doesn’t beg for the grace to suffer well, and he doesn’t beg to suffer rather in this life than in the next. Instead, he wants to suffer as little as possible here below. That is understandable on a human level, but it is not the attitude a Catholic intent on saving his soul ought to have; least of all is it the attitude a ‘Pope’ should communicate in a book that is published to the whole world.

Bergoglio may have only a few hours left before he is called to his particular judgment. May God grant him the grace of sincere repentance and the ability to make a good confession to a validly ordained priest. He has a lot to answer for.

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31).

Title image source: Shutterstock (Riccardo De Luca – Update)
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