Pope Francis has not fully recovered from the “mild flu” he has been suffering from since last Saturday, so he had to go to a hospital in central Rome to undergo some medical tests and return to the Vatican shortly afterwards. His health problems have forced him to cancel some events on his agenda in recent days, but today he did host his usual Wednesday general audience, in which he asked a bishop from the Secretary of State to read his catechism so as not to tire. excess. “I still have a bit of a cold,” the 87-year-old Francis apologized to the faithful gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall in December.
The pope did, however, speak briefly, with a hoarse voice and a few coughs, to mark Friday the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention and to condemn the weapons that target “innocent civilians.” After the general audience, the pope Zong left the small country in a utility vehicle and went privately to the Gemelli Hospital on Tiber Island in the center of Rome, from where he quickly returned to the Vatican.
The clinic is a branch of the Gemelli Polyclinic and he visited the clinic twice last year for computed tomography (CAT) scans. In March he was hospitalized for three days with bronchitis, and in June he had to undergo surgery under general anesthesia to treat an incarcerated incisional hernia, which caused “recurrent, painful and increasingly severe” intestinal obstruction.
The pope has suffered other bouts of flu in recent months, including “very acute and contagious” bronchitis in late November, for which he had to be treated with intravenous antibiotics in addition to other medications. Due to illness, he was unable to travel to Dubai to attend the international climate conference COP28.