Vatican says Francis’s respiratory infection also involves asthmatic bronchitis but that he remains ‘in good spirits’.

Pope Francis has contracted double pneumonia, further complicating treatment for the 88-year pontiff, the Vatican has said.

The Vatican on Tuesday said Francis’s respiratory infection also involves asthmatic bronchitis, which requires the use of cortisone antibiotic treatment.

Francis has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Gemelli Hospital in Rome, Italy on February 14.

“Laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture,” the Vatican said in a statement.

“[A] chest CAT scan which the Holy Father received this afternoon … showed the onset of bilateral pneumonia that requires further pharmacological therapy,” it added.

The pope, however, is in “good spirits,” the statement said.

A Vatican official, speaking on background earlier in the day, said the pontiff had not been put on a ventilator and was breathing on his own.

The Vatican also announced that all public events on the pope’s calendar had been cancelled through Sunday.

The pope had been due to lead several events over the weekend for the 2025 Catholic Holy Year, a special time of pardon and forgiveness for Catholics, which runs through to next January.

On Monday, the Vatican had said that doctors had changed the pope’s drug therapy for the second time during his hospital stay to tackle a “complex clinical situation“.

They described it as a “polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract”.

The Vatican has said Francis will stay in hospital for as long as necessary.

The Argentine pope is especially prone to lung infections because as a young adult, he developed pleurisy and had part of one lung removed.