ROME Pope Francis canceled his audiences on Monday due to a mild flu-like illness just days before starting a trip to Belgium and Luxembourg, according to the Vatican.
The measure was described as a precaution in a Vatican statement. The cancellations only affected Monday’s appointments and the pontiff maintains his travel plans, Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni later told the press.
Francis plans to visit Luxembourg on Thursday and then spend the rest of the week in Belgium, ending with a mass in Brussels on Sunday.
The 87-year-old pontiff, who has used a wheelchair for two years, has had health problems in recent years. When he was young, part of his lung was removed due to a respiratory infection.
Francis has had a busy schedule of hearings since returning from his 11-day tour of four countries in Asia and Oceania on September 13. It was the longest and most distant trip of his pontificate. That has included several meetings with visiting bishops, private meetings with his Vatican team and a big event on Friday with members of popular movements.
The Vatican statement described Francis as having a flu-like condition. For much of last fall and winter, the pope had acute bronchitis and recurring bouts of flu that forced him to cancel a quick trip to Dubai to participate in the United Nations climate conference in November.
The Vatican then said it was suspending the trip on the recommendation of its doctors.
In Belgium, Francis plans to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the country’s main Catholic universities and address the Belgian faithful, who in recent years have received constant revelations about clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups in the Church.
The challenging trip to Asia, followed so closely by visits to Belgium and Luxembourg, was already a test for Francis’ health, especially before a busy autumn. As soon as he returns from Belgium, he plans to preside over a three-week synod, a meeting of bishops that involves long days of closed-door debates about the future of the Church.
Francis’ agenda for Monday included receiving members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, who will meet at the Vatican this week for their plenary assembly, and participants in a Christmas contest. The Vatican published the texts that Francis planned to read on those occasions.
Francisco has had several health problems in recent years. In 2023, he spent three days hospitalized and received intravenous antibiotics to treat a respiratory infection. In 2021, he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed and then underwent another surgery two years later to repair an abdominal hernia and remove scar tissue.
