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.

Pope Francis, who is being treated in hospital for double pneumonia, will not appear in public on Sunday to lead his usual prayer with pilgrims for a second consecutive week, the Vatican said. Francis is being treated at Rome's Gemelli hospital,

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.