Pope offers prayers for quake-stricken Southeast Asia from convalescence in Vatican

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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis offered prayers to the victims of a powerful earthquake in Southeast Asia on Friday, the sixth day of his convalescence in the Vatican after a five-week hospitalization for life-threatening double pneumonia.

“The pope has been informed of the disaster in Myanmar and is praying for the dramatic situation and for the many victims, also in Thailand,’’ the Vatican said.

Images showed widespread destruction in Myanmar’s second-largest city from the 7.7 magnitude quake centered in a country embroiled by civil war, which also rocked neighboring Thailand.

Since returning to the Vatican on Sunday, the pope has continued physical and respiratory therapy, with slight improvements in both his speaking and movements, the Vatican said without providing further details. He continues to be treated for a lingering fungal infection of the respiratory airways.

The pontiff appeared weak and frail when he greeted the faithful from a balcony of the Gemelli Hospital last Sunday. He was later seen in the front seat of his white Fiat 500L wearing nasal tubes to receive supplemental oxygen.

At the Vatican, Francis is receiving oxygen around the clock, with high-pressure delivery through nasal tubes only for part of the night. He can go without for short periods if an activity requires it, Vatican sources said.

He has received no outside visitors since returning to his residence in the Domus Santa Marta, and is surrounded by his medical team and close collaborators. He spends his time resting, in prayer and continuing the work of his papacy, the Vatican said.

Doctors have said he needs to spend at least two months of rest and recovery, avoiding large gatherings, after the respiratory illness that included two serious crises that brought him near death. The doctor who coordinated his hospital treatment, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, said this week that the medical team briefly considered stopping treatment after a Feb. 28 respiratory crisis, before deciding on an aggressive course that eventually beat the double pneumonia.

The Vatican has not yet commented on whether he will participate in any Holy Week celebrations including Easter on April 20, or the April 27 canonization of Carlo Acutis, who will be the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint.

King Charles III’s audience with Francis planned for April 8 was postponed by mutual agreement.

The Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, met Friday with Polish President Andrzej Duda on the 20th anniversary of the death of St. John Paul II — a meeting originally planned with the pope. The two also discussed the war in Ukraine, and security and peace in Europe, the Vatican said in a statement.