Pope Francis annuls his agenda until Monday after being admitted to the hospital with bronchitis

Pope Francis annulled his participation in the events that he was going to preside over in the next three days after being hospitalized this Friday because of bronchitis, as confirmed by the Holy See in a statement.

Specifically, the Pontiff will not participate in the Jubilee Audience that was scheduled for this Saturday, February 15.

Nor will he preside over the Mass of the Jubilee of the Artists and the world of Sunday’s culture; The prefect of the Vatican Culture and Education, the Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, will do so for him.

The Pontiff has also been forced to cancel his meeting planned with the personalities of the artistic world and his visit on Monday, February 17, the mythical Roman film studies of Cinecittà “For its impossibility of participating.”

The Holy Father, 88, was admitted to the Gemelli Polyclinic of Rome suffering from bronchitis that in recent days had prevented him from reading some speeches aloud.

“This morning, at the end of the audiences, Pope Francis was admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic to perform some necessary diagnostic exams and continue the treatment in the hospital environment of bronchitis still in progress,” the Vatican explained in a statement, not He specified the time to be in the hospital.

The Holy Father showed the first symptoms of bronchitis earlier last week. On Wednesday, February 5, he announced that he suffered “a strong cold” and apologized for not being able to read his catechesis at the general audience before the faithful gathered in the Paul VI classroom.

The next day, on Thursday, February 6, the Holy See confirmed that it was bronchitis, caused by the inflammation of the lining of the bronchi that make it breathe difficult.

“Due to a bronchitis that suffers these days, and to continue with its activities, on Friday 7 and Saturday, February 8, the audiences of Pope Francis will take place in the Santa Marta house,” the Vatican then reported in a brief message .

Since then, although the Holy Father has not canceled his agenda, the audiences have taken place in the Santa Marta house, his residence of the Vatican, and not in the Apostolic Palace, as usual, to prevent him from going outside and that was exposed to the low temperatures of Roman winter.

Fourth time admitted to the hospital

This is the fourth time that Pope Francis has to be hospitalized. The last one was at the end of March 2023, when he was admitted to the Hospital of Rome Gemelli because of another bronchitis, which was treated with antibiotics.

On that occasion, he was hospitalized for three days, which generated a generalized concern that fed the speculations that he could choose to retire instead of remaining in the position for life, a decision that made his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

The Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, then settled the assumptions about Pope Francis’s health by arguing that he had maintained a tight schedule and that he was simply “tired.”

The Pontiff has suffered in increasing health problems, from persistent pain in the right knee, specifically, a painful gonalgia caused in turn by an osteoarthritis, until its recent hospitalization due to respiratory problems.

Despite bronchitis, he fulfilled all his appointments

Despite its fragility conditions, Pope Francis fulfilled all his appointments planned for this Friday, February 14 before being transferred to the Gemelli Polyclinic Rome hospital.

According to the agenda published by the Vatican Press Office, the Holy Father met with the prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle; with the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Robert Fico; with the president and general director of the CNN, Mark Thompson; and with members of the “Gaudium et Spes” Foundation to which he even took strength to pronounce a brief speech.

Pope Francis thanked them for the work they do, “especially in favor of the poorest, following the teachings of the constitution of the Council of which they have taken their name and that honor with their actions.”

“This union is carried out through the Holy Spirit, which is love, and manifests itself in solidarity, especially towards those who suffer the most,” he said.

Similarly, he pointed out that the strength of the Holy Spirit leads Catholics to “be instruments of God’s love who wants to reach all men, without distinction.”

In this regard, he said they are “a source of hope for so many people who suffer and are discouraged, people who, through your works, feel that God caresses and comforts them in their suffering.”

Guerra in Gaza, at the center of conversations with Fico

Pope Francis’s public day started at 9:00 a.m. (local time) when he met at the Santa Marta house to the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Robert Fico, for half an hour.

The political leader was the victim of an attack in May last year when, after a meeting of the Executive in Handlova (Slovakia), he was shot in the chest, stomach and leg. An attack that the Pontiff wanted to remember in his speech the diplomatic corps in the Holy See last January, pointing it as a tragic example of the “climate of suspicion” generated by the news that “foster hate.”

The Holy Father presented to the Prime Minister of Slovakia with a work of Terracota entitled “Tenderness and Love” and handed him some of the most important papal documents of his pontificate as the message for the peace of this year. He also gave him the volume “persecuted by the truth, the Ukrainian Greco-Catholics after the steel curtain.”

For his part, Fico gave Pope Francis a bronze work that represents the saints Ciril of the guard.

Immediately afterwards, the head of the Bratislava government moved to the Vatican Apostolic Palace where he met as usual with the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was accompanied by the Undersecretary for relations with the states, Monsignor Mirosław Wachowski.

According to the statement of the press office of the Holy See, in this context the “mutual appreciation for solid bilateral relations and the renewed common commitment for social cohesion” was reaffirmed and special attention was paid “to the topic of anthropology and family and educational issues. ”

“The international framework was also in depth,” the statement continues, “focusing on persistent instability in Ukraine and peace perspectives, as well as in the fragile truce in Israel and Palestine and the serious humanitarian emergency in Gaza.”