Thursday, June 19, 2014

Fresh Speculation About Pope Francis's Health

Left: newly elected Pope Francis waves after holding his first audience with journalists. Right: Pope Francis earlier this year (via The Telegraph)


Pope Francis will not walk in a traditional religious procession through the streets of Rome on Thursday night in order to save his strength for coming engagements, the Vatican has said.

The announcement follows the pontiff's decision earlier this week to cancel his morning Mass and Wednesday general audiences throughout July.

The Telegraph reports:
Last week the pope had to cancel an engagement because of a slight fever. But he has since made several appearances – including his Wednesday general audience before tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square – and looked in good health.
Earlier this week the Vatican announced the Pope would give no midweek general audiences in St Peter's Square during July while the small Mass he celebrates every day inside the chapel at his St Martha residence would be suspended from July until September.
The Pope will continue to lead the Angelus in St Peter's Square every Sunday except when he travels to South Korea on his first official visit from August 13-18.
Some Vatican officials have privately expressed concern about the impact of the Pope's heavy workload particularly since he had part of a lung removed when he was young and suffers from sciatica.

1 comment:

  1. I was reading Ralph Raico's book, "The Place of Religion in the Liberal Philosophy of Constant, Tocqueville, and Lord Acton" this morning on the train. Acton was commenting on what Raico wonderfully called the "beneficent conflict" between Church and State. It occurred to me that the Pope (any Pope) could not really understand the proper role of the Church in the beneficent conflict until the Pope is no longer himself head of a state, but a subject of its tender mercies. That cannot happen too soon.

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