Some laboratory tests on the 88 year old pontiff showed improvement while a kidney insufficiency was not worrisome, the Vatican quoted his doctors saying. Nevertheless Francis continues to receive oxygen through the nose though at a slowly reduced level, the medical bulletin added.

 

 However the bulletin stopped short of saying the pope, being treated for double pneumonia, is out of danger.

 

 "The doctors, considering the complexity of the clinical picture, as a matter of prudence, still reserve their prognosis." 

 

 Monday evening the pope called his longstanding friend the parish priest in the parish of Gaza to express his paternal closeness to him. "Pope Francis thanks all the people of God who in these days gathered to pray for his health," the Vatican bulletin said.

  jp