The Roman Pontiff has been ailing for years now. Now it’s all come to a head.
And the Vatican announces tragic news about Pope Francis.
At the ripe old age of 86, Pope Francis is in the top-ten oldest serving popes in history.
Over the past few years, his health has debilitated pretty quickly, with many of his appearances showing him using a wheelchair.
Now the Holy Father is sick, and the Vatican is shedding light on how bad it really is.
Pope Francis’ lung inflammation has caused him some breathing difficulties, but his condition is stable and “clearly improving,” the Vatican said on Monday.
A CT scan at a Rome hospital over the weekend “ruled out pneumonia, but it showed lung inflammation causing some breathing difficulties,” Bruni said.
Pope Francis felt well enough to keep his scheduled meeting with Paraguay’s president on Monday morning, but he has postponed several of his other meetings this week while he recovers from what the Vatican has termed as “mild flu.”
The Vatican shared images of Pope Francis’ meeting with Paraguayan President Santiago Pea, which showed him smiling and walking with a cane.
According to the French news outlet I.Media, the Pope was also scheduled to meet with a group of French abuse survivors on Monday, but it appears that this meeting was also postponed.
“To facilitate the pope’s recovery, some important engagements scheduled for these days have been postponed so that he can devote the desired time and energy to them,” Bruni explained.
“Others, of an institutional nature or easier to support given his current health condition, have been maintained.”
Pope Francis, who will turn 87 next month, has had a string of medical setbacks in recent years.
He’s been in the hospital several times, most recently in June for abdominal surgery.
In 1957, before beginning his novitiate with the Jesuits, a portion of the Pope’s right lung was removed during surgery in Argentina.
Earlier this year, the Pope was treated for bronchitis for many days before declaring on April 1st, “I’m still alive, you know.”
On Sunday, instead of the normal window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square, the Pope gave the Angelus blessing from his apartment, the Casa Santa Marta.
“Today I cannot appear at the window because I have this problem of inflammation of the lungs,” the Pope said in the Angelus broadcast on Nov. 26.
In his Angelus talk, Pope Francis stated that he will still fly to Dubai next weekend to deliver a speech at the United Nations COP28 climate summit. The Pope will visit the United Arab Emirates from December 1 to 3.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
