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.
Delaware neighborhood on edge after masked men with apparent weapons knock on doors of homes
Trump says he’d ‘love’ to have Sen. John Fetterman as a Republican amid growing speculation
Trump says he will ‘make a decision’ on Pentagon’s plans to livestream Nidal Hasan’s firing squad execution
Toxicology reports reveal same controlled substances in 2 Ole Miss students found dead: court docs
President talks ‘Trump Ocean,’ trades jokes with Tennessee crowd as Kid Rock kicks off sprawling rally
Supreme Court climate case could bankrupt oil companies, send gas prices soaring, experts warn
Trump calls for Ukraine to replace Zelenskyy after clash over Russia diesel deal: ‘Get a new president’
Christa Pike discharged from hospital, returned to prison after botched execution, attorneys say
That Time an Activist Claimed 13 Million Blacks Are Killed by Police Each Year, Then Claimed ER Trip After the Internet Mocked Him
5-Time WNBA MVP Gets Roasted for Award Acceptance Speech That Ignores Her Past
President Trump blasts Nobel Peace Prize snub with blistering list of accomplishments: ‘WOW!’
Judicial Watch’s Thomas Fitton slams FBI’s ‘drip-drip’ release for 75,000 pages of Trump-Butler shooting files
Trump Admin Finally Restores Sanity Back to Title IX, Erases Biden’s Crazy Trans Sports Agenda
Democrats Campaigning Against Their Own Congressional Nominee Who Happens to Be in Federal Prison
Boxing Legend Mike Tyson Delivers Controversial Letter to Trump, Makes Bold Midterm Prediction
"Today in Lombardy there are 406 positive cases of #coronavirus, of which 216 hospitalised." https://t.co/5OeOXeP87q
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 29, 2020
Delaware neighborhood on edge after masked men with apparent weapons knock on doors of homes
Trump says he’d ‘love’ to have Sen. John Fetterman as a Republican amid growing speculation
Trump says he will ‘make a decision’ on Pentagon’s plans to livestream Nidal Hasan’s firing squad execution
Toxicology reports reveal same controlled substances in 2 Ole Miss students found dead: court docs
President talks ‘Trump Ocean,’ trades jokes with Tennessee crowd as Kid Rock kicks off sprawling rally
Supreme Court climate case could bankrupt oil companies, send gas prices soaring, experts warn
Trump calls for Ukraine to replace Zelenskyy after clash over Russia diesel deal: ‘Get a new president’
Christa Pike discharged from hospital, returned to prison after botched execution, attorneys say
That Time an Activist Claimed 13 Million Blacks Are Killed by Police Each Year, Then Claimed ER Trip After the Internet Mocked Him
5-Time WNBA MVP Gets Roasted for Award Acceptance Speech That Ignores Her Past
President Trump blasts Nobel Peace Prize snub with blistering list of accomplishments: ‘WOW!’
Judicial Watch’s Thomas Fitton slams FBI’s ‘drip-drip’ release for 75,000 pages of Trump-Butler shooting files
Trump Admin Finally Restores Sanity Back to Title IX, Erases Biden’s Crazy Trans Sports Agenda
Democrats Campaigning Against Their Own Congressional Nominee Who Happens to Be in Federal Prison
Boxing Legend Mike Tyson Delivers Controversial Letter to Trump, Makes Bold Midterm Prediction
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.
