Pope Francis has cancelled his Friday to Sunday trip to Dubai for COP28 due to his health.
The Vatican announced this evening that “although the Holy Father’s general clinical picture has improved with regard to his flu-like condition and inflammation of the respiratory tract, doctors have asked the Pope not to make the trip planned for the coming days to Dubai.”
“Pope Francis accepted the doctors’ request with great regret and the trip is therefore canceled,” the statement added.
The Vatican will look for ways to make it possible for the Pope and the Holy See to nevertheless participate in the discussion on climate to be held in Dubai, the statement said.
The Holy Father will turn 87 on December 17.
Yesterday, November 27, the director of the Vatican press office said the Pope’s health report was “good and stable,” that he didn’t have a fever, and that his “respiratory situation is clearly improving.”
Matteo Bruni gave this report in response to journalists’ questions, after the Pope himself explained on Sunday that he has a “problem of inflammation of the lungs.”
It was Saturday morning that Bruni announced that the “audiences of the Holy Father scheduled for this morning are canceled due to a slight flu-like condition.”
On Saturday afternoon, a CT scan ruled out pneumonia but did show “a pulmonary inflammation causing some breathing difficulties,” Bruni explained Monday, adding that he was getting IV antibiotics.
When he was 21 years old, the future pope developed an inflammation of the tissues surrounding the lung, which led to surgery to remove three pulmonary cysts and a small part of his upper right lung.
Follow reports on the Pope’s health here.
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