…He ‘had a restful night’ — Vatican
- By Teddy Nwanunobi
It has been twelve years since an old man step onto the the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, and stood there stiff like a board. The white smoke had already poured out of the Vatican chimney, indicating that the College of Cardinals had completed their deliberations and had selected a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.
With the new Pope’s appearance, the papacy began to change almost immediately. First, the 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, who was elected on March 13, 2013 to succeed Benedict XVI, was not wearing the customary red stole.
Second, instead of blessing the crowd, he asked for their blessing and prayers.
“Before the Bishop blesses his people, I ask you to pray to the Lord that he will bless me — the prayer of the people asking a blessing for their bishop. Let us make, in silence, this prayer: your prayer over me,” he said, and bowed to receive their blessing.
He also made the same request before he said good night.
“Pray for me,” he told the crowd.
Pope Francis, who has been hospitalised since Friday, February 14, had a restful night at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital where he is recovering from pneumonia.
“The Pope had a restful night,” the Holy See Press Office said on Thursday morning — the day of his 12th Anniversary as Pope.
His doctors have said his prognosis is no longer guarded and that a chest x-ray showed improvement, but maintain that his situation remains complex and therefore, he still requires more time in the hospital.
Asking people to pray for him has been his constant refrain. He has made requesting prayers a hallmark of his papacy and a standard way to end a letter or speech.
Since he has been hospitalised at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Friday, February 14, and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia, the people’s response to his regular request to the people to pray for him has been very clear.
