Pope is improving and will keep some of his commitments, says Vatican

Francisco can thus make the expected visit to COP28, next weekend, which will take place in Dubai, being the first time that the Holy See is an active participant in talks against the climate crisis and not just an agent of moral persuasion.

The pope’s audiences this Saturday were canceled after the Vatican announced that the pontiff had symptoms similar to those of the flu.

This Sunday, his Angelus prayer was recited in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta residence, where he lives, inside the Vatican, instead of on the balcony of the Apostolic Palace, reported the ANSA agency.

During the prayer, the 86-year-old Argentine revealed that he was suffering from lung inflammation and asked one of his advisors to read his speech.

“The pope’s condition is good and stable, he has no fever and his respiratory situation is clearly in the best possible condition,” the Vatican spokesman said today.

“To help the Pope’s recovery, some important commitments scheduled for the next few days have been postponed so that he can dedicate the desired time and energy to them. Others, of an institutional nature or easier to support given his current state of health, were maintained”, he added.

Bruni stressed that the tests carried out on Saturday “ruled out pneumonia, but showed lung inflammation causing some breathing difficulties”.

The spokesperson highlighted that the pope is receiving intravenous antibiotics to treat inflammation.

The pope’s weekly general audience on Wednesdays at the Vatican will take place as usual, the Holy See assured today.

It will be Francisco’s first direct meeting with the faithful since Saturday.

The pope has had several health problems in recent years and months.

Most recently, he was “a bit constipated” earlier this month, but continued with all his commitments as planned.

Francis’ health has been a subject of debate since he made it clear that he would be prepared to resign if illness prevented him from doing his job, as his predecessor Benedict XVI surprisingly did in February 2013.

Regarding his next trip to Dubai, Francisco highlighted today that he considers the conference could be a turning point in the energy transition.

“If we believe in the ability of human beings to transcend our petty interests and think on a large scale, we cannot give up dreaming that #COP28 will lead to an acceleration of the energy transition”, underlined Pope Francis via the social network X (formerly Twitter).

The United Nations has been insisting on the need to immediately adopt “spectacular measures” to prevent further global warming, when the planet is heading towards 2.9ºC of warming.

To prevent a 3°C rise in temperatures by the end of the century, all countries will have to reduce emissions far beyond current promises, cutting 42% of emissions by 2030 if they want to not exceed 1.5°C, a target assumed in 2015 in the Paris Agreement on reducing emissions, indicates a UN report.

COP28 takes place between November 30th and December 12th in Dubai, with the ambition of making the first global assessment of the Paris Agreement.

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