Vatican Confirms Plans For Belgium, Luxembourg Trip After Pope Cancels Audiences Due To Illness

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican stated that Pope Francis will go to Belgium and Luxembourg later this week, after canceling all of his audiences on Monday due to a “slight flu-like state.”

Matteo Bruni, a Vatican spokesperson, stated that the cancellation affected only Monday’s audiences. He spoke with reporters before the official start of his Vatican briefing to provide details about the trip.

Earlier this morning, the Vatican stated that Francis had canceled his Monday audiences as a “precaution.”

Francis is scheduled to visit Luxembourg on Thursday before spending the rest of the week in Belgium, culminating with a Mass in Brussels on Sunday.

Vatican Confirms Plans For Belgium, Luxembourg Trip After Pope Cancels Audiences Due To Illness

The 87-year-old pope, who has been using a wheelchair for two years, has faced several health issues in recent years, including having part of one lung removed as a young man due to a respiratory ailment.

He has had a full schedule of audiences since returning from a four-nation, 11-day trip through Asia on September 13, the longest and farthest trip of his pontificate. The audiences have included many talks with visiting bishops, individual audiences with his Vatican aides, and a large gathering on Friday with members of popular movements.

The Holy See press office described Francis as being in a “flu-like state.” Francis had acute bronchitis and recurring attacks of influenza throughout the autumn and winter, forcing him to abandon a quick trip to Dubai in November to attend the United Nations climate conference.

According to the Vatican, he did so at the advice of his doctors.

In Belgium, Francis will commemorate the 600th anniversary of the country’s main Catholic universities and minister to Belgians who have been shaken by years of persistent disclosures of clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups.

The rigorous Asia journey, followed by visits to Belgium and Luxembourg, was already going to put Francis’ health to the test, especially as he enters a hectic autumn season. As soon as he returns from Belgium, he will preside over a three-week synod, or bishops’ assembly, that will include long days of closed-door discussion over the church’s future.

Vatican Confirms Plans For Belgium, Luxembourg Trip After Pope Cancels Audiences Due To Illness

On Monday, Francis had scheduled audiences with members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, who are meeting at the Vatican this week for their plenary assembly, as well as participants in a Christmas contest. The Vatican revealed the texts that Francis was meant to have given to both.

Francis has experienced various health issues in recent years. In 2023, he spent three days in the hospital receiving intravenous antibiotics for a respiratory infection. In 2021, he had 13 inches (33 centimetres) of his colon removed, followed by another surgery two years later to treat an abdominal hernia and remove scar tissue.

SOURCE | AP