Pope Francis remains in critical condition and is suffering kidney failure in hospital, the Vatican has announced.

Blood tests show the pontiff is suffering early kidney failure as Francis battles pneumonia and a complex lung infection, officials said in a statement last night.

In an update this morning, the Vatican said in a brief statement that Francis, 88, had a good night and was resting after he was ‘well oriented’ on Sunday and attended Mass.

‘The night passed well, the pope slept and is resting’, it said as the Pope entered his 11th day at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, making this the longest hospitalisation of his papacy.

The pope, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted on Valentine’s Day with breathing difficulties.

Officials said on Sunday that the Pope hadn’t had any more respiratory crises since Saturday night but was still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen, reiterating that Francis was still considered to be in critical condition.

Some blood tests showed ‘initial, mild, kidney failure,’ but doctors said it was under control. The decreased platelet count, necessary for clotting, that was first detected Saturday was stable.

‘The complexity of the clinical picture, and the necessary wait for drug therapies to provide some feedback, dictate that the prognosis remains reserved,’ the doctors concluded.

Earlier on Sunday, the Pope from his hospital bed thanked doctors as well as people sending ‘prayers of comfort’ from all over the world.

‘I am confidently continuing my hospitalisation at the Gemelli Hospital, carrying on with the necessary treatment – and rest is also part of the therapy!’ the pontiff wrote in a statement.

He shared on Twitter/X on Sunday: ‘I have recently received many messages of affection, and I have been particularly struck by the letters and drawings from children.

‘Thank you for your closeness, and for the consoling prayers I have received from all over the world!’

The pontifex was initially diagnosed with bronchitis but this developed into pneumonia in both lungs – and on Saturday night, the Vatican warned for the first time that his condition was critical.

Francis is alert but ‘the complexity of the clinical picture, and the need to wait for the pharmacological treatments to have some effect, mean that the prognosis remains reserved’, the Vatican concluded.

Abele Donati, head of the anaesthesia and intensive care unit at the Marche University Hospital, told the Corriere della Sera daily that the renal failure ‘could signal the presence of sepsis in the early stages’.

‘It is the body’s response to an ongoing infection, in this case of the two lungs’, he said.

Professor Sergio Alfieri, leading the medical team treating the pope at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, warned at a press conference on Friday that ‘the real risk in these cases is that the germs pass into the blood’, which could result in sepsis, a life-threatening condition.

Francis’s continued hospitalisation has sparked widespread concern, with Catholics around the world praying for his recovery.

It has also fuelled speculation about whether he might step down.

He has always left the door open to following his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign.

But he has repeatedly said it was not the time.