While the Vatican has detailed laws and rituals to ensure the transfer of power when a pope dies or resigns, they do not apply if he is sick or even unconscious.

Gandhi’s Scant Garb Bars Audience with Pope.” So read the headline of a New York Times report, from December 13, 1931, that the Vatican had cancelled a meeting between Pius XI and “the Indian nationalist leader” because the Pope thought he might be criticized “if he received the visitor in his usual scanty clothing.

The pope looms so large in everyday Italian life that there are lots of expressions that make light of even a dark event like his death.

The Vatican reported another slight improvement in Pope Francis's condition on Thursday, as the 88-year-old spent his seventh day in hospital being treated for double pneumonia.

The pope looms so large in everyday Italian life that there are lots of expressions that make light of even a dark event like his death. “A pope dies, they make another,” goes one, suggesting how life goes on.

The Vatican on Tuesday canceled papal audiences through the weekend and delegated others to cover for Pope Francis as the 88-year-old pope remained hospitalized with a multi-pronged respiratory infection.

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The pope looms so large in everyday Italian life that there are lots of expressions that make light of even a dark event like his death

The Vatican says Pope Francis is stable and that he followed Mass on television after a second night sleeping well at the hospital. The 88-year-old Argentine pontiff was admitted to

Being in the hospital is "a strong sign of the pope's humanity," Cardinal Lojudice said. He is the vicar of Christ, but he is also a man, "like all of us, with his frailties, weaknesses" and advancing age. "And, precisely in this condition, he continues to give witness to his faith and his role, even with the limitations posed by illness," he said.