Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Pope Francis greets visitors gathered to pray the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Feb. 25, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Saying Pope Francis was continuing to experience “mild flu-like symptoms,” the Vatican announced he had canceled his appointments again Feb. 26.

The 87-year-old pope had led the recitation of the Angelus prayer as usual Feb. 25 and seemed to have no difficulty speaking or breathing, and he did not cough.

The previous day, though, he canceled a meeting with transitional deacons from the Diocese of Rome. The Vatican press office had put out a note Feb. 24 saying, “Due to a mild flu-like condition, as a precautionary measure, the pope canceled his audiences scheduled for today.”

The press office provided no further information and did not indicate what those symptoms were.

The only information the press office added Feb. 26 was that the pope did not have a fever.

The cancellation came after Pope Francis and top officials of the Roman Curia took five days off for their Lenten spiritual reflections.

Saying Pope Francis was continuing to experience “mild flu-like symptoms,” the Vatican announced he had canceled his appointments again Feb. 26.

In November and January when the Vatican said the pope had “flu-like symptoms” they were respiratory difficulties, which Pope Francis described as bronchitis.

At a Jan. 12 meeting with Catholic communicators from France, the pope skipped reading his prepared text because, he told the group, “I have a bit of bronchitis, and I can’t speak well.”

In late November and early December, he also suffered from what he described as a very serious bronchial infection.

“Thank God it was not pneumonia,” he told a group of health care managers. “I no longer have a fever, but I am still on antibiotics and things like that,” he had said.

He had canceled his appointments Nov. 25 because of what the press office described as “flu-like symptoms” and went that afternoon to a Rome hospital for a CT scan of his chest. In the following days, he canceled some appointments and had aides read his prepared texts at other events.

That bout of respiratory difficulties also was what led him to cancel his plans to travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates Dec. 1-3 to address the U.N. Climate Change Conference.

Suffering from a respiratory infection, he also spent four days in March at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

He had undergone surgery in 1957 to remove part of one of his lungs after suffering a severe respiratory infection. He has insisted the operation has had no lasting impact on his health.

Pope Francis usually does not have any formal audiences on Tuesday; he was scheduled to hold his weekly general audience Feb. 28.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV greets religious sisters during a meeting with officials and employees of the Roman Curia, Vatican City State and the Diocese of Rome in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican May 24, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Describing the Curia as the institution that preserves “the historical memory of the church,” Pope Leo called on these Vatican employees to “work together” with him “in the great cause of unity and love.”
Gerard O’ConnellMay 24, 2025
Paola Ugaz, a Peruvian journalist who helped expose the abuse committed by leaders of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, gives Pope Leo XIV a stole made of alpaca wool, during the pope's meeting with members of the media May 12, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo offered a heartening message for a global media that has endured a pretty awful year.
Kevin ClarkeMay 23, 2025
If you think our enthusiasm for our basketball team was intense, just wait until you see our support for Pope Leo XIV.
Jack DoolinMay 23, 2025
“I don’t think he’s the kind of man who sends coded messages,” Cardinal Michael Czerny says in this exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.
Gerard O’ConnellMay 23, 2025