February 19, 2025 • 5 mins
The Pope's sense of humour is well and truly intact, even as it's expected his funeral preparations are underway.
New medical tests reveal the 88-year-old pontiff has developed bilateral pneumonia.
Italy's Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has visited the Pope in hospital, where she was happy to find he hasn't lost his sense of humour.
Rome Correspondent Jo McKenna told Mike Hosking she expects the Vatican would be going through standard funeral arrangements.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Ittally Joe McKenna, morning to you, good money, Mike.
I can only imagine this is the one stop shop
of conversation in your particular part of the world.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How is he?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Do we know?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs and that's
quite complicating as we know for someone of his age.
He's eighty eight years old. He had part of one
of his lungs removed when he was a young man.
He's had bronchitis in the past, so this is a
complex respiratory infection. He was doing a little bit better today.
He was out of bed and sitting in his tenth
(00:33):
floor suite at Jamali Hospital, and he had a visit
from the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Maloney.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
The report and it wasn't a tabloid, I will give
you that, but they suggesting was they were rehearsing his funeral.
Is that true? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Look, I would expect that those arrangements would be made.
You know that they would be looking at those preparations
as we saw for many years before the death of
Queen Elizabeth. These are standard operations that the Vatican would
be I think going through at the moment, even though
I haven't seen confirmation about I would expect that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And I know you're not a doctor, and I know
this is my weird fascination. But in looking at the
pictures of them, like obviously before he went to hospital,
he's got a tremendous swelling under his jaw in his net.
Do we know what that is? Is that obvious to
people or is it just me?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I think the understanding is that he's been on court
his oonne treatment for a while, which has affected his weight,
and as you said, there was swelling. Many of the
Vatican journalists who saw his last weekly audience last Wednesday
said he was absolutely dreadful. He was struggling to speak,
he couldn't breathe, and they couldn't believe that he wasn't
in hospital already.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That's right, those are the pictures I look at. He
doesn't look well now, speaking of not looking well for
other reasons, maloney, is that once again? Is it just me?
But I looked at those pictures around the table with
Macron and co. She looked like she'd rather be down
at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah. To me, she just looked like a disdainful teenager,
and for somebody who has been openly supportive, consistently supportive
of Zelensky and Ukraine against Russia, Suddenly she's in the
middle of a bit of a pickle because she has
to side with Europe and at the same time she
wants to keep her cozy relationship going with Donald Trump,
(02:21):
President of the US, and she's probably worried about the
imposition of those tariffs that we haven't heard from heard
about just yet.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Can she explain or can you explain? What is it
about Europe? I mean literally, you guys are having the
rug pulled out from under you as we speak, as
peace talks start and continue between Russia and America. And
you've heard what Trump is said about Zelensky this morning.
What is it about Europe that they refuse to get
their act together? What Schultz doing storming out and whining
(02:50):
and bitching when really you might want to get your
act together and start looking like you're a bit cohesive. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I think that is still an issue for the European leaders,
especially for Germany as we know, facing this critical election
in the next few days. But they do need to
get their act together, and there are so many different
political points of view now and different coalitions within Europe.
For example, as we know, Maloney generally lines up much
(03:18):
more with Erduan my bigger pardon Auburn in Hungary. So
there is this kind of it's very difficult I think
for the political leaders to build alliances, especially as we
know President Macron has got weakness in his own backyard
and Schultz is very weak in Germany.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Almost like a vacuum, and they're taking advantage of it.
By the way, Na, how spectacular and would you go
up there and have a good gook.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, those images are just incredible. We've had skiers skiing
down the snow on the slopes as the lav has
been erupting. We've had chaos on the streets and tourists
lining up in their cars to try and take a look,
and that's causing all sorts of problems and flights have
diverted from the area as well. But it's certainly a
worry I think seeing Edna explode and it has impact
(04:08):
and will have an impact on tourism if that continues.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, exactly. And you don't have rules in Italy about that,
like when the thing's blowing up, you don't go skiing
down it or stand there and watch it or anything
like that.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Stay away.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
How hard can it be? All right? Joe Nice to
catch up Joe Mckenneron Thursday Mornings in The Mic Asking Breakfast,
Boris Johnson says this, when are we Europeans going to
be stop being scandalized about Donald Trump and start helping
him in this war? Of course, Ukraine didn't start the war.
You might as well say, America attack Japan at pil Harbor.
Keimmi bad Knox says, Lenski's not a dictator, He's the
(04:42):
democratically elected leader of Ukraine. Trump is right that Europe
needs to pull its weight and that includes the UK.
We need to get serious. The PM as in Starma,
will have my support to increase defense spending.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
And Ittally Joe McKenna, morning to you, good money, Mike.
I can only imagine this is the one stop shop
of conversation in your particular part of the world.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How is he?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Do we know?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs and that's
quite complicating as we know for someone of his age.
He's eighty eight years old. He had part of one
of his lungs removed when he was a young man.
He's had bronchitis in the past, so this is a
complex respiratory infection. He was doing a little bit better today.
He was out of bed and sitting in his tenth
(00:33):
floor suite at Jamali Hospital, and he had a visit
from the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Maloney.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
The report and it wasn't a tabloid, I will give
you that, but they suggesting was they were rehearsing his funeral.
Is that true? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Look, I would expect that those arrangements would be made.
You know that they would be looking at those preparations
as we saw for many years before the death of
Queen Elizabeth. These are standard operations that the Vatican would
be I think going through at the moment, even though
I haven't seen confirmation about I would expect that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And I know you're not a doctor, and I know
this is my weird fascination. But in looking at the
pictures of them, like obviously before he went to hospital,
he's got a tremendous swelling under his jaw in his net.
Do we know what that is? Is that obvious to
people or is it just me?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I think the understanding is that he's been on court
his oonne treatment for a while, which has affected his weight,
and as you said, there was swelling. Many of the
Vatican journalists who saw his last weekly audience last Wednesday
said he was absolutely dreadful. He was struggling to speak,
he couldn't breathe, and they couldn't believe that he wasn't
in hospital already.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That's right, those are the pictures I look at. He
doesn't look well now, speaking of not looking well for
other reasons, maloney, is that once again? Is it just me?
But I looked at those pictures around the table with
Macron and co. She looked like she'd rather be down
at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah. To me, she just looked like a disdainful teenager,
and for somebody who has been openly supportive, consistently supportive
of Zelensky and Ukraine against Russia, Suddenly she's in the
middle of a bit of a pickle because she has
to side with Europe and at the same time she
wants to keep her cozy relationship going with Donald Trump,
(02:21):
President of the US, and she's probably worried about the
imposition of those tariffs that we haven't heard from heard
about just yet.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Can she explain or can you explain? What is it
about Europe? I mean literally, you guys are having the
rug pulled out from under you as we speak, as
peace talks start and continue between Russia and America. And
you've heard what Trump is said about Zelensky this morning.
What is it about Europe that they refuse to get
their act together? What Schultz doing storming out and whining
(02:50):
and bitching when really you might want to get your
act together and start looking like you're a bit cohesive. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I think that is still an issue for the European leaders,
especially for Germany as we know, facing this critical election
in the next few days. But they do need to
get their act together, and there are so many different
political points of view now and different coalitions within Europe.
For example, as we know, Maloney generally lines up much
(03:18):
more with Erduan my bigger pardon Auburn in Hungary. So
there is this kind of it's very difficult I think
for the political leaders to build alliances, especially as we
know President Macron has got weakness in his own backyard
and Schultz is very weak in Germany.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Almost like a vacuum, and they're taking advantage of it.
By the way, Na, how spectacular and would you go
up there and have a good gook.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, those images are just incredible. We've had skiers skiing
down the snow on the slopes as the lav has
been erupting. We've had chaos on the streets and tourists
lining up in their cars to try and take a look,
and that's causing all sorts of problems and flights have
diverted from the area as well. But it's certainly a
worry I think seeing Edna explode and it has impact
(04:08):
and will have an impact on tourism if that continues.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, exactly. And you don't have rules in Italy about that,
like when the thing's blowing up, you don't go skiing
down it or stand there and watch it or anything
like that.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Stay away.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
How hard can it be? All right? Joe Nice to
catch up Joe Mckenneron Thursday Mornings in The Mic Asking Breakfast,
Boris Johnson says this, when are we Europeans going to
be stop being scandalized about Donald Trump and start helping
him in this war? Of course, Ukraine didn't start the war.
You might as well say, America attack Japan at pil Harbor.
Keimmi bad Knox says, Lenski's not a dictator, He's the
(04:42):
democratically elected leader of Ukraine. Trump is right that Europe
needs to pull its weight and that includes the UK.
We need to get serious. The PM as in Starma,
will have my support to increase defense spending.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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