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.
Obama-Era Report on ICE-Related Deaths Proves How Hypocritical Hysteria Over Alex Pretti’s Death Really Is
US moves fast to reopen Venezuela embassy after yearslong freeze
Josh Shapiro knocks Biden record, says Democrats failed to deliver results Americans could ‘see or feel’
VIDEO: Trump Tries Out New Insult on ‘ABC Fake News’ Reporter, Then Hits Her with the Art of the Deal
Rubio says US has no plan to use force in Venezuela — but warns ‘imminent threat’ could change that
FBI agents search election hub in Fulton County, Georgia
Op-Ed: How Pro-Life Republican Leaders Are Delaying the End of Abortion
Watch: As Chants Ring Out About Lynching Kristi Noem, Clueless Lib Protesters Realize to Their Horror Who They’re in Bed With
Anheuser-Busch praised for patriotic Budweiser Super Bowl ad after Bud Light controversy
Child Sex Abuse Material Made with AI Surges to Shocking New Levels
Tom Homan Issues Statement After Meeting with Tim Walz and Jacob Frey
Ilhan Omar backed by House Republicans after Minnesota town hall attack
Vandals hit Yosemite National Park with graffiti on boulder, more
Privacy concerns, discrimination, doctor pushback: the compliance traps looming behind sex-separated sports
Trump threatens attack on Iran worse than ‘Midnight Hammer’ with military buildup in the region
"Today in Lombardy there are 406 positive cases of #coronavirus, of which 216 hospitalised." https://t.co/5OeOXeP87q
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 29, 2020
Obama-Era Report on ICE-Related Deaths Proves How Hypocritical Hysteria Over Alex Pretti’s Death Really Is
US moves fast to reopen Venezuela embassy after yearslong freeze
Josh Shapiro knocks Biden record, says Democrats failed to deliver results Americans could ‘see or feel’
VIDEO: Trump Tries Out New Insult on ‘ABC Fake News’ Reporter, Then Hits Her with the Art of the Deal
Rubio says US has no plan to use force in Venezuela — but warns ‘imminent threat’ could change that
FBI agents search election hub in Fulton County, Georgia
Op-Ed: How Pro-Life Republican Leaders Are Delaying the End of Abortion
Watch: As Chants Ring Out About Lynching Kristi Noem, Clueless Lib Protesters Realize to Their Horror Who They’re in Bed With
Anheuser-Busch praised for patriotic Budweiser Super Bowl ad after Bud Light controversy
Child Sex Abuse Material Made with AI Surges to Shocking New Levels
Tom Homan Issues Statement After Meeting with Tim Walz and Jacob Frey
Ilhan Omar backed by House Republicans after Minnesota town hall attack
Vandals hit Yosemite National Park with graffiti on boulder, more
Privacy concerns, discrimination, doctor pushback: the compliance traps looming behind sex-separated sports
Trump threatens attack on Iran worse than ‘Midnight Hammer’ with military buildup in the region
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.
