Pope Francis’s health is improving: Vatican

By AFP
December 03, 2023

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis’s health is “improving,” the Vatican said Saturday, after the pontiff was forced to cancel his attendance at the COP28 climate conference because of bronchitis.

“The health conditions of the Holy Father are improving,” the Vatican said in a statement. “The pope does not have a fever and is continuing with his treatment.”

Even so, to avoid exposing him to temperature variations, the 86-year-old Argentinian will not recite the traditional Angelus Prayer on Sunday from a balcony on Saint Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis speaks with aides prior to being helped into the “popemobile” from his wheelchair following the weekly general audience at St. Peters square in The Vatican, March 29, 2023. —AFP
Pope Francis speaks with aides prior to being helped into the “popemobile” from his wheelchair following the weekly general audience at St. Peter's square in The Vatican, March 29, 2023. —AFP

Instead, as he did last Sunday, he will recite the prayer in his private quarters, which will be broadcast on screens in the square below and on the Vatican’s media outlets.

Francis had already cancelled his visit to the COP28 in Dubai, where he was due to make a much-anticipated speech about the environment.

Instead it was Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s number two, who read the pope’s speech Saturday, in which he called on participants to make a “breakthrough” in the ecological transition.