ROME: The Vatican on Tuesday canceled papal audiences through the weekend and delegated others to cover for pope Francis as the 88-year-old pope remained hospitalized with a multi-pronged respiratory infection.
The cancellations put a damper on upcoming events of the Vatican’s big holy year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration of catholicism that is aimed at encouraging pilgrims to come to Rome to participate in special jubilee activities. Expected to draw some 30 million people to Rome, the holy year is packed with special papal audiences and masses throughout 2025, some of which have now been put into question given Francis’ illness.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital in a “fair” condition on Friday after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. On Monday, medical personnel determined that he was suffering from a polymicrobial respiratory tract infection, meaning a mix of viruses, bacteria and possibly other organisms had colonized in his respiratory tract. The Vatican has given no indication of how long he might remain hospitalized, only saying that the treatment of such a “complex clinical picture” would require an “adequate” stay.
This holy year weekend was dedicated to deacons, the ministry that is a necessary step for men who are preparing to become priests. Francis was supposed to have presided over a special audience with them on Saturday and ordained them during a Mass on Sunday. The Vatican on Tuesday announced the audience was canceled and that the archbishop who is organizing the jubilee would celebrate the mass. It’s a similar arrangement that the Vatican announced last weekend, when artists in town had to settle for a cardinal presiding over their special mass.
The next jubilee events on the calendar that would typically involve the pope are the March 8-9 weekend dedicated to volunteers.
Francis had part of one lung removed after a pulmonary infection as a young man and is prone to bouts of bronchitis in winter. He has admitted in the past that he is a non-compliant patient, and even his close Vatican aides have said he pushed himself too far even once his bronchitis was diagnosed.
He refused to let up on his busy schedule and ignored medical advice to stay indoors during Rome’s chilly winter, insisting on sitting through an outdoor jubilee mass for the armed forces on February 9 even though he was having trouble breathing.
Francis’ hospital admission has this year has already sidelined him for longer than a 2023 hospitalization for pneumonia.
