The 86-year-old pontiff is recovering from the flu and irritation of respiratory tract.
Pope Francis has cancelled his journey to the United Arab Emirates for a United Nations local weather summit on medical doctors’ orders as he recovers from the flu and lung irritation, the Vatican says.
Francis, 86, was scheduled to depart on Friday to deal with the Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai on Saturday. He would have change into the primary pontiff to deal with a UN local weather convention.
He additionally was set to inaugurate a religion pavilion on Sunday on the sidelines of the occasion.
On Tuesday, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni mentioned Francis’s well being was bettering after the flu and irritation of his respiratory tract had compelled him to cancel his audiences on Saturday, however the medical doctors suggested him to not journey to Dubai.
The pope agreed to not journey “with great regret”, in keeping with the Vatican assertion, which added that it might look into ways in which the chief of the world’s Roman Catholics might contribute to the local weather discussions remotely.
Francis, who had a part of one lung eliminated as a younger man, got here down with the flu final week and had a CT scan. The Vatican subsequently mentioned the take a look at had dominated out pneumonia.
On Sunday, he skipped his conventional look at his studio window overlooking St Peter’s Sq. to keep away from the chilly. As an alternative, he gave the normal midday blessing in a televised look from the chapel within the Vatican lodge the place he lives and requested a priest to learn his written day by day reflections out loud.
The pope needed to postpone a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan in 2022 due to knee irritation. He was in a position to make that journey early this yr.
When requested about his well being in a current interview, Francis responded in what has change into his normal line: “Still alive, you know.”
