Many who know him said that Francis, driven by a sense of mission and a discipline born of his early training, essentially worked himself into the hospital.

The health of Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for over a week with pneumonia, worsened on Saturday, raising fears that the pontiff might not survive his struggle with respiratory infections.

People across Latin America prayed for Pope Francis, the first leader of the Catholic Church to come from the region, as the Vatican reported on Saturday the Argentina-born pontiff was in critical condition in a Rome hospital.