ROME – Pope Francis canceled all scheduled activities for the second time in three days on Monday, with the Vatican citing lingering influenza as the cause.
“He does not have a fever and continues to have mild flu-like symptoms,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in an email to reporters, adding that the day’s events had been canceled “as a precautionary measure.”
Bruni issued a similar notice Saturday morning, announcing the suspension of all papal activities due to “mild seasonal influenza.”
On Sunday, the 87-year-old pope appeared briefly at the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace for his weekly Angelus address.
Last month, the pope attended a meeting with Catholic spokespeople from France at the Vatican, but omitted reading a prepared text because he was suffering from bronchitis and could not speak very well. .
A similar situation caused the pope to suspend activities for several days last November and visit Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for a chest CT scan.
These same respiratory illnesses caused Francis to cancel a trip to Dubai in early December where he was scheduled to address the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
