ROME (AP) — Pope Francis returned home to the Vatican on Sunday after he was hospitalized for five weeks with a life-threatening bout of pneumonia.
The 88-year-old pope suffered two life-threatening crises while hospitalized, but by the beginning of the fourth week doctors said he was no longer in critical condition. After two weeks of stable condition, they said he was well enough to continue his convalescence at the Vatican.
Here are highlights of the longest hospital stay of Francis’ 12-year papacy, based on details provided by the Vatican:
Pope Francis is hospitalized with bronchitis and a slight fever immediately following a morning of audiences. Doctors diagnose a respiratory tract infection.
Pope Francis is diagnosed with polymicrobial (bacterial, viral and fungal) infection in the respiratory passages, marking a setback.
An X-ray indicates Pope Francis has developed pneumonia in both lungs, marking another setback; cortisone and antibiotic treatments are confirmed.
Pope’s doctors say at a news conference that the pope remains in critical condition and isn’t out of danger, but that his condition isn’t imminently life-threatening. Doctors say the pope has developed steroid-induced diabetes that is being treated. Prognosis is guarded.
Pope in critical condition after experiencing a respiratory crisis and requires high-pressure oxygen through nasal tubes, in the first mention of assisted breathing. Francis also receives two blood transfusions after tests show signs of anemia and low platelet count that are later resolved. Setback.
Doctors report that the pope has gone into onset of slight kidney failure, in a setback. No repeat of the respiratory crisis, but he remains in critical condition.
The mild renal failure has regressed, in an improvement.
Pope suffers isolated coughing spasm during which he inhaled vomit, in a setback requiring noninvasive aspiration. Responded well. Placed on a noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask to pump supplemental oxygen into his lungs. Prognosis remains guarded.
Two acute bronchospasm episodes in a setback requiring bronchoscopies, or a camera-tipped tube with a device to remove mucus plugs, yielding abundant secretions. Pope remained alert, oriented and collaborative during maneuvers. Prognosis remains guarded.
Pope records an audio message that is broadcast to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square thanking them for their prayers. His voice is weak and he’s out of breath.
Doctors declare Francis is no longer in imminent danger of death from pneumonia, but keep him in the hospital for further treatment
Chest X-ray confirms improvement in pope’s condition.
Pope marks 12th anniversary of papacy from the hospital, where he receives a cake and hundreds of messages and drawings with good wishes. No medical update.
Pope marks one month in the hospital. Vatican announces it will cease issuing morning updates about the pope’s rest overnight and will issue fewer medical bulletins in a sign of the continuing improvements in the pope’s medical condition.
The Vatican released the first photograph of Pope Francis during his hospitalization. The photo shows the pope seated from behind in front of the altar in the private chapel in the papal apartment at Gemelli hospital. No breathing tube is visible.
Doctors announced that the pope will be dismissed from the hospital the next day, and that he will have a period of conavelesce of at least two months during which he is discouraged from meeting with large groups.
A weak and frail Francis leaves Gemelli hospital for the Vatican after making a brief appearance on the hospital's balcony.
Pope Francis appears at a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he has been treated for bronchitis and bilateral pneumonia since Feb. 14. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
FILE - Pope Francis waves as he arrives for his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed closely divided Monday over a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map, which has two Black majority districts for the first time.
Several of the court's conservative justices suggested they could vote to throw out the map and make it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the landmark federal Voting Rights Act.
The case involves the interplay between race and politics in drawing political boundaries in front of a conservative-led court that has been skeptical of considerations of race in public life.
Just two years ago, the court by a 5-4 vote affirmed a ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in a similar case over Alabama’s congressional map. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined their three more liberal colleagues in the outcome.
That decision led to new districts in both states that sent two more Black Democrats to Congress.
At issue in the Louisiana case is a majority Black district that winds from Shreveport to Baton Rouge. Roberts described it as a “snake” that might violate the standard practice of drawing compact electoral districts.
The case features an unusual alliance of the Republican-led state government, which is defending the congressional map, and civil rights groups that more often find themselves fighting the state’s redistricting plans.
The United States is halfway to the next once-a-decade census, but the court is still dealing with lawsuits that grew out of the last one.
It has been a winding road. The court fight over Louisiana's congressional districts has lasted three years. Two maps were blocked by lower courts, and the Supreme Court has intervened twice. Most recently, the court ordered the new map to be used in the 2024 election.
The state’s Republican-dominated legislature drew a new congressional map in 2022 to account for population shifts reflected in the 2020 Census. But the changes effectively maintained the status quo of five Republican-leaning majority white districts and one Democratic-leaning majority Black district.
Civil rights advocates won a lower court ruling that the districts likely discriminated against Black voters.
The Supreme Court put the ruling on hold while it took up the Alabama case. The justices allowed both states to use congressional maps in the 2022 elections even though both had been ruled likely discriminatory by federal judges.
The high court eventually affirmed the ruling from Alabama, which led to a new map and a second district that could elect a Black lawmaker. The justices returned the Louisiana case to federal court, with the expectation that new maps would be in place for the 2024 elections.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave lawmakers in Louisiana a deadline of early 2024 to draw a new map or face the possibility of a court-imposed map.
The state complied and drew a new map.
One of the questions before the court is whether race was the predominant factor driving the new map. That's what white Louisiana voters claimed in their separate lawsuit challenging the new districts. A three-judge court agreed.
But Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, and other state officials argue that politics, not race, helped set the boundaries. The congressional map provides politically safe districts for House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, fellow Republicans.
The state acted to “protect our most high-profile incumbents,” state Solicitor General A. Benjamin Aguiñaga told the justices.
Some lawmakers have also noted that the Republican lawmaker whose district was greatly altered in the new map supported a GOP opponent of Landry in the 2023 governor’s race. Former Rep. Garret Graves chose not to seek reelection under the new map.
Louisiana argues that dueling lawsuits over redistricting make it almost impossible for states to know what to do.
In a separate case, Louisiana is arguing that the part of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional.
The court's conservative majority already has ruled that federal courts have no role to play in partisan gerrymandering. Justice Clarence Thomas said the court also should no longer decide race-based redistricting cases. “Drawing political districts is a task for politicians, not federal judges,” Thomas wrote last year in an opinion no other justice joined.
But the court doesn't have to touch that issue to resolve the Louisiana case.
The reconfigured 6th Congressional District stretches across the state, linking parts of the Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette and Baton Rouge areas. The percentage of Black voters in the district jumped from about 25% to 55%, based on data collected by the state.
The district's voters last year elected Cleo Fields, a Black Democrat. He returned to the House of Representatives, where he had served decades earlier.
The state also has changed the state's election process so that the so-called jungle primary will be replaced by partisan primary elections in the spring, followed by a November showdown between the party nominees.
The change means candidates can start gathering signatures in September to get on the primary ballot for 2026.
A Supreme Court decision invalidating the congressional map would leave little time to draw a new one before then.
A decision is expected by late June.
Cline contributed to this report from Baton Rouge, La.
FILE - The U.S. Supreme Court is seen near sunset in Washington, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE - The U.S. Supreme Court is seen near sunset in Washington, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
