VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis cancelled official engagements for the third day in a row Saturday as he battled an apparent cold.
The 83-year-old pope, who lost part of a lung to a respiratory illness as a young man, has never cancelled so many official audiences or events in his seven-year papacy.
Francis is, however, continuing to work from his residence at the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel and is receiving people in private, the Vatican press office said. On Saturday, those private meetings were with the head of the Vatican’s bishops’ office, Francis’ ambassadors to Lebanon and France and a Ukrainian archbishop.
Cancelled were his two planned official audiences — formal affairs in the Apostolic Palace where Francis would have delivered a speech and greeted a great number of people at the end. Those were to include an audience with an international bioethics organization and with members of the scandal-marred Legion of Christ religious order.
WATCH: ‘Shocking’ Ben Franklin smear leaves Smithsonian chief with ‘no regrets’
Former CIA Director James Woolsey, Who Served Under Clinton and Later Advised Trump, Dies at 84
Montana Teen Says God Coached Him As He Used a Lasso Rope to Save Man from Drowning
Dem Rhode Island lawmaker threatens ICE: ‘Your day of reckoning will come m—– f——‘
Fox News ‘Antisemitism Exposed’ Newsletter: Why Fetterman called Mamdani a ‘clown’
Joe Rogan says ex-con guest allegedly killed man, hid dismembered remains month after podcast
Illegal Alien Released Into US by Obama Administration Charged with Killing 3 in Hit-and-Run
FIRST ON FOX: White House reveals who’s joining Trump at correspondents’ dinner — and who can’t attend
4 House Republicans rebel against Trump, vote with Dems to block Iran war powers
Gay Fox News Pundit Under Fire After Acquiring a Newborn Baby
Houthis attack two Saudi tankers, with oil prices jumping in response
One of Charlie Kirk’s Final Endorsements Wins Big in Gubernatorial Primary
AOC roasted over defense bill claim as GOP lawmaker tells her to ‘stop stoking Jew hatred’
Bill Cassidy could deliver Trump his latest Iran war rebuke after U.S. casualties
Arkansas cop tragically dies saving fiancée’s life just hours after proposing
"Today in Lombardy there are 406 positive cases of #coronavirus, of which 216 hospitalised." https://t.co/5OeOXeP87q
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 29, 2020
WATCH: ‘Shocking’ Ben Franklin smear leaves Smithsonian chief with ‘no regrets’
Former CIA Director James Woolsey, Who Served Under Clinton and Later Advised Trump, Dies at 84
Montana Teen Says God Coached Him As He Used a Lasso Rope to Save Man from Drowning
Dem Rhode Island lawmaker threatens ICE: ‘Your day of reckoning will come m—– f——‘
Fox News ‘Antisemitism Exposed’ Newsletter: Why Fetterman called Mamdani a ‘clown’
Joe Rogan says ex-con guest allegedly killed man, hid dismembered remains month after podcast
Illegal Alien Released Into US by Obama Administration Charged with Killing 3 in Hit-and-Run
FIRST ON FOX: White House reveals who’s joining Trump at correspondents’ dinner — and who can’t attend
4 House Republicans rebel against Trump, vote with Dems to block Iran war powers
Gay Fox News Pundit Under Fire After Acquiring a Newborn Baby
Houthis attack two Saudi tankers, with oil prices jumping in response
One of Charlie Kirk’s Final Endorsements Wins Big in Gubernatorial Primary
AOC roasted over defense bill claim as GOP lawmaker tells her to ‘stop stoking Jew hatred’
Bill Cassidy could deliver Trump his latest Iran war rebuke after U.S. casualties
Arkansas cop tragically dies saving fiancée’s life just hours after proposing
On Sunday, Francis is expected to leave the Vatican with top Holy See bureaucrats for a week of spiritual exercises in the Roman countryside, an annual retreat that the pope attends at the start of each Lent.
Francis last appeared in public on Wednesday, when he was seen coughing and blowing his nose during an Ash Wednesday Mass. The following day, he cancelled a Mass across town with Roman priests and on Friday, skipped an audience with participants of a Vatican conference on artificial intelligence.
The Vatican has stressed that Francis has celebrated Mass each morning and greeted attendees at the end, and then proceeded to continue working from home.
The Vatican hasn’t revealed the nature of Francis’ illness, saying only he has a “slight indisposition.” Francis’ illness, though, has come amid general alarm in Italy over the coronavirus outbreak, which has sickened more than 800 people, most in northern Italy.
Sky News Anchor Asks if @VP Mike Pence, as a Christian, Is Fit for #Coronavirus Role https://t.co/LvOLuaS3wJ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 28, 2020
Story cited here.
