Vatican City, Holy See – he pope francisco Despite canceling his event, he will still attend an Easter vigil in Rome on Saturday night bet On the way to the cross, a sudden decision increased people’s fear of him healthy increasingly vulnerable.
The 87-year-old pope will lead an Easter vigil in St Peter’s Basilica at 6:30pm GMT, attended by thousands of pilgrims from around the world, followed by Sunday morning Mass and “Urbi et Orbi” “bless. “.
The Vatican confirmed his Saturday attendance at noon, despite the last-minute cancellation on Friday night of his visit to the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum, which was attended by 25,000 people.
The Vatican announced the day before: “In order to preserve his health during tomorrow’s vigil and Easter Mass, Pope Francis will follow the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum this afternoon from his residence in Santa Marta.”
The timing of the announcement – shortly before the ceremony began, forcing organizers to rush to remove the pope’s chair – and the Vatican’s terse communication have again raised concerns about Jorge Bergoglio’s health.
La Stampa’s headline on Saturday was “Fragile Pope’s cross”, while the Courier read it as “Francis’ resignation”.
“This is a simple precautionary measure,” a Vatican source told AFP, assuring that the pope’s health did not cause “any particular concern”.
The Argentinian Jesuits have canceled their participation in the Stations of the Cross in 2023, but the decision came after three days of hospitalization for bronchitis and was notified in advance.
A week of reloading
Holy Week is a central pillar of the Catholic calendar and involves so many rituals that end with Easter that it feels like a marathon for an octogenarian who has been traveling in a wheelchair for two years.
In recent days, he has kept his promise until he is scheduled to host Friday afternoon’s Passion Service.
But he seemed tired recently and was repeatedly forced to have his speeches in which he mentioned bronchitis be entrusted to others to be read, and at the end of February he underwent tests at a Rome hospital.
Friday’s annulment is likely to revive questions about his ability to continue governing the Catholic Church and its 1.3 billion followers.
Despite undergoing a major abdominal surgery in 2023, Francis, who never takes a day off, continues to work frantically at the Vatican, where he can host more than a dozen interlocutors in a morning.
However, he has not traveled since visiting Marseille (southern France) in September and had to cancel his participation in December’s COP28 in Dubai due to bronchitis.
His announced trip to Asia and Oceania this summer appears more uncertain than ever, but the Vatican has only now made it official.
Francis has always left the door “open” to a possible resignation, in line with his predecessor Benedict XVI. But in his autobiography published in mid-March, he reiterated that he had no “serious reason” to resign, saying it was a “remote hypothesis” that would only be true in the case of “serious physical impairment.”