ROME (AP) – The Vatican on Tuesday cancelled the Pope’s audience over the weekend, delegating others to cover Pope Francis as the 88-year-old Pope continued to be hospitalized. Multifaceted respiratory infections.
Cancellation will place dampers at upcoming events The Great Holy Year of the Vaticana celebration of the once-at-a-time century of Catholicism, aimed at encouraging pilgrims to come to Rome to participate in special jubilee activities. The Holy Year, which was expected to attract around 30 million people to Rome, has been packed with special pope audiences and masses throughout 2025, some of which have been questioned given Francis’ illness.
Francis was admitted to Gemeri Hospital in Rome in “fair” on Friday after a week-long bronchitis match worsened. On Monday, medical personnel determined he was suffering from Multimicrobial respiratory infectionmeaning a mixture of viruses, bacteria, and possibly other organisms had settled in his respiratory system. The Vatican has not shown how long he will remain hospitalized, but he simply says that treatment for such a “complex clinical picture” requires a “appropriate” stay.
Francis once again had a peaceful night, had breakfast and read the newspaper on Tuesday morning, said Matteo Bruni, a Vatican spokesman. A more detailed medical update was expected later.
On Monday, Francis resumed some kind of work and called Gaza City Parish daily to check in the Catholic community.
This Holy Year weekend was dedicated to the deacon, the ministry, the necessary step for men preparing to become priests. Francis had an unrelated audience on Saturday and was supposed to ordained butler during Sunday’s Mass. On Tuesday, the Vatican announced that his audience had been cancelled and the Archbishop, organizing the Jubilee, would celebrate the Mass. It is a similar arrangement that the Vatican had to settle a cardinal where town artists presided over the weekend, with their special masses.
The next jubilee event, usually on the calendar, including the Pope, is the weekend of March 8-9, dedicated to volunteers.
Francis has one lung part removed as a young man after a lung infection, Potentially bronchitis attacks in winter. He has admitted in the past that he is a non-compliant patient, and even his close Vatican aides, even after his bronchitis was diagnosed, he pushed himself too much. He says that.
He refused to quit his busy schedule, ignored medical advice to stay indoors during the chilly Roman winters, and insisted on sitting through the outdoor Jubilee Mass. For the military On February 9th, despite his struggles with breathing.
Francis’ hospitalization this year has already been watching him longer. Hospitalization in 2023 for pneumonia.
___
Associated Press Religious Reporting is supported through the Associated Press collaboration With funding from Lilly Endowment Inc., the AP is in a conversation by taking sole responsibility for this content.
