ROME — Pope Francis canceled all his scheduled activities Monday for the second time in three days, with the Vatican citing a persistent flu as the cause.
“Mild flu-like symptoms persist without fever,” stated Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni in an email to journalists, adding that the day’s events were canceled “as a precaution.”
Bruni released a similar notification on Saturday morning, announcing the suspension of all papal activities because of a “mild seasonal flu.”
On Sunday, the 87-year-old pontiff appeared briefly at the window of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican for his weekly Angelus address.
Last month, the pope attended a meeting in the Vatican with Catholic communicators from France but omitted reading his prepared text because, as he said, “I have a touch of bronchitis and I can’t speak very well.”
A similar situation led the pope to cancel his activities over several days last November and occasioned a visit to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for a CT scan of his chest.
These same respiratory troubles also caused Francis to cancel his trip to Dubai in early December, where he was slated to address the COP28 U.N. Climate Change Conference.