Pope Francis’ health: cancels agenda due to mild flu

Pope Francis has canceled all the commitments he had scheduled for this Monday, September 23, due to suffering from a mild flu.

In a message sent from the press office of the Holy See early this morning, the Vatican reported on the state of health of the Holy Father.

“Due to a mild flu, and as a precautionary measure for travel in the coming days, the papal audiences scheduled for today are cancelled,” the brief statement reads.

Pope Francis was scheduled to receive the participants of the “Christmas contest” and the members of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, among others.

Next Thursday, September 26, he will begin his trip to Belgium and Luxembourg and will return to the Vatican on Sunday, the 29th.

This brief but intense visit to the two European countries will take place just a few days after returning from the longest and most complicated trip of his pontificate.

It should be remembered that Pope Francis visited 4 different countries in Asia and Oceania — Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore — in the middle of this month.

During the extensive trip, lasting 11 days, he was energetic and seemed to be in good health, despite the time changes, the long hours on the plane and the numerous public events.

Since returning to the Vatican on September 13, he has continued with his commitments with hardly any rest.

The health of Pope Francis

At the end of November 2023, Pope Francis suffered inflammation in the lungs due to a “mild flu” whose effects lasted until March 2024.

During those months, Pope Francis was also forced to reduce his schedule because the flu caused him breathing difficulties and prevented him from reading most of his speeches aloud.

In fact, he was forced to cancel his trip to Dubai, scheduled for December 1, to participate in the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP28.

Likewise, the Pontiff repeatedly gave up the reading of most of his homilies, claiming that he did not get over “a little bronchitis” or “a slight cold,” depending on the occasion.

Last March, Sergio Alferi, the doctor who has operated on Pope Francis’ abdomen twice, stated that there is “no worrying situation” in the Pontiff’s health and that he does not suffer from any particular illness.

“The Holy Father adapts well to his age and his occasional breathing difficulties in the coldest times, also due to the previous lung operation he underwent many years ago,” he explained on that occasion.