With pope in hospital, Vatican breaks century-old taboos to discuss his health

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - For centuries, one of the biggest taboos at the Vatican was openly discussing the pope's health. As leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, the pope is a revered spiritual figure. Talking about his earthly health was profane.

But as Pope Francis has battled double pneumonia at Rome's Gemelli hospital since February 14, the Vatican has been trying something new. The Holy See press office has been giving daily updates on his condition. 

It has provided details such as the pope's use of high-flow oxygen and his need for blood transfusions, and even described a "prolonged asthma-like respiratory crisis" on February 22.

"I've been cautiously impressed," said Greg Erlandson, a U.S. journalist who has covered the Vatican for decades. 

Taken together, the updates "build trust that we are getting a fairly accurate summary" of the pope's condition, said Erlandson, a former editor-in-chief of the Catholic News Service.

John Thavis, a Vatican correspondent for three papacies, said the new transparency "fits with Francis' open style of communicating but is a departure from the Vatican's traditional reserve on the topic of papal health".

Two of the doctors treating Francis told a press conference on February 21 that it was the pope himself who had ordered the daily updates. 

Doctor Sergio Alfieri, at the Gemelli hospital, said the instructions were to write updates "without withholding anything".

MEDICAL UPDATES REFLECT POPE FRANCIS' DESIRE FOR OPENNESS

One person known to speak with Francis frequently, who asked not to be named to discuss the pope's preferences without authorisation, said the pontiff himself had helped draft the updates in his first days in hospital, and pushed his doctors to give more specific details about his condition and treatment.

Thavis said Francis "wanted the gravity of his condition made clear".

Vatican officials have not spoken publicly about the reasons for the detailed updates, but in private, several officials have expressed worry about the spread of misinformation.

Soon after the pope was admitted to hospital, social media posts began claiming he had died or been given last rites. False AI-generated images purporting to show him being kept alive with the help of a ventilator also began circulating.

The pope's daily medical updates have said repeatedly that he is breathing on his own but occasionally being provided oxygen, as needed, via a small tube under his nose.

"The Vatican has finally learned that it is better to be forthcoming than to let conspiracy theorists fill the void," said Tom Reese, a Jesuit priest and commentator who has covered the papacy closely.

Pope John Paul II, whose papacy lasted from 1978-2005, had visible tremors for years before the Vatican finally confirmed in 2003 that he had Parkinson's disease.

And the stomach cancer that afflicted Pope John XXIII for at least eight months was only revealed long after his death in 1963.

"The old saying is that the pope's never sick until he's dead," said Christopher Bellitto, a historian at Kean University in New Jersey who studies the Catholic Church. "That's changed."

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Kevin Liffey)