Pope Francis’ status of health doesn’t allow him to attend the planned official event this week. As Vatican Information Office said, the pontiff never cancelled a large number of events in an unprecedented way in his papal career.
The 83-year-old Pope Francis is ill, he had to cancel a record number of his public activities, Holy See press office reported. The Vatican did not reveal the nature of Pope Francis’ illness, saying only that he had “a slight health disorder”. However, the pontiff is continuing its work from its residence at the Santa Marta Hotel in the Vatican and receiving people separately.
On Saturday, those special meetings were with the head of the Vatican Archbishop’s Office, the ambassadors of Francis in Lebanon and France, and the Ukrainian Archbishop.
The Head of the Roman Catholic Church appeared in public places on Wednesday when he was seen coughing during the traditional Ashes service.
On Thursday, he cancelled a mass throughout the city with Roman priests, and on Friday he missed a meeting with participants at the Vatican Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the morning and finally greeted the believers, then proceeded to continue working from his residence.
Pope’s slight health disorder comes amid general alarm in Italy over the outbreak of the virus, which has infected more than a thousand people, mostly in the north of the country. In fact, there is no surprise that the sovereign of the Vatican City State is slightly ill, the pontiff made 83 last December.
As of March 1st, the Italian Civil Protection announced recording 29 deaths from the virus, 8 of whom died in 24 hours, including 3 in the north of the country.
Since the start of the epidemic a week ago, it has been found that 1,128 people are living with the virus, but 52 percent of them have not shown symptoms of the disease or have shown limited symptoms, according to the Civil Protection.