Pope Francis 'slightly improving' each day but 'whispers of a potential resignation have grown'

Pope Francis has been in hospital for a week.

He is not out of danger, but he is not in immediate danger, doctors treating him told a packed press conference on Friday 21 February.

The Pope has pneumonia in both lungs, a condition deemed serious by medics in young and healthy patients.

He is 88-years-old and has part of one of his lungs missing, after it was surgically removed in his 20s following a serious respiratory illness.

Despite his age and "complex medical picture," medics at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome had a reassuring tone as they updated the media.

They even laughed relaying jokes the Pope had cracked at their expense during his stay.

Watch Ellie Pitt's report from Friday night

Vatican statements are also clear, tests show his health is “slightly improving” each day.

So that’s it. The Pope’s condition is stable. He is ill, but resting (mostly) and recovering.

And yet, during his week in hospital, whispers of a potential resignation have grown louder and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi uttering the ‘r’ word during a television interview did nothing to silence the speculation.

“The Pope can decide to resign,” he said.

It is true, it is within the Pope’s power to resign, but for a Cardinal to mention retirement is significant.

The genie is out of the bottle, wrote one Vatican commentator.

Pope Benedict XVI set a precedent in modern times for Papal resignation and removed the taboo of a Pope leaving office before their death.

But has Benedict’s decision, to leave his position because he felt he could no longer lead the Catholic church, set in place another perhaps unintended sequence of events.

One where, when a Pope’s medical condition is compromised, the question of resignation is almost immediately raised.

“It’s all or nothing for Pope Francis,” says his biographer Austen Ivereigh, “he won’t want to do his role by halves.”

Pope Francis has a reputation for stubbornly wanting to remain busy.

Even this week, from his sick bed he hosted Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, for a 20-minute private meeting.

“You have to hospitalise him to get him to rest,” joked Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline during a media briefing on Thursday.

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He will need at least another week in the Gemelli we were told on Friday night - an announcement that could have caused wide-spread concern about his ability to continue and further fuelled rumours of resignation - if it was not paired with the cool, calm delivery of the doctors in charge of his treatment.

This looks to be his longest hospital stay during his papacy, but the doctor-led news conference felt designed to keep focus on his recovery, not his replacement.

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