<h4>Anxiety As Vatican</h4>
<p><strong><a href="https://openlife.ng/">OpenLife Nigeria</a> </strong>reports that the Vatican on Tuesday cancelled two of Pope Francis’s events at the weekend while the 88-year-old continues to receive hospital treatment for bronchitis.</p>
<p>The Holy See had already indicated on Monday that the pontiff, who was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday, would stay longer than initially believed due to a “complex” clinical picture.</p>
<p>“Due to the health conditions of the Holy Father, the Jubilee audience of Saturday, February 22 is cancelled,” it said.</p>
<p>It added that the pontiff has delegated a senior Vatican clergyman to celebrate a planned mass on Sunday morning.</p>
<p>The Vatican statement did not mention the Angelus prayer, which the pope normally delivers at midday (1100 GMT) on Sunday but which he missed last weekend.</p>
<p>Francis, the head of the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to hospital after struggling for several days to read his texts in public.</p>
<p>It is the latest of a series of health issues for the Argentine Jesuit, who has undergone hernia and colon surgery since 2021 and uses a wheelchair due to pain in his knee.</p>
<p>On Monday, the Vatican said tests had confirmed “a polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract that has led to a further change in treatment.”</p>
<p>“All the tests carried out until now are indicative of a complex clinical picture that will require adequate hospitalisation,” it said.</p>
<p>In an update on Monday evening, it said the pope’s condition was unchanged.<br />
“The <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/">Holy Father</a> remains without a fever and is proceeding with the prescribed treatment,” it said.<br />
The pontiff had “received the Eucharist” on Monday morning “and subsequently dedicated himself to some work and reading texts”, it said.</p>
<p>“Pope Francis is touched by the numerous messages of affection and closeness he continues to receive,” it added.</p>
<p><strong>Pilgrims pray</strong></p>
<p>Among the pilgrims and tourists gathered in Saint Peter’s Square on Tuesday morning, many said they were praying for the pope’s recovery.</p>
<p>“I hope that he’s getting better soon. I trust in the medical treatment of the general practitioners of the hospital and I hope they will give their best,” Birgit Jungreuthmayer, a 48-year-old Austrian tourist, told AFP.</p>
<p>Despite his health troubles, Francis remains a very active pontiff, with a busy weekly schedule and regular overseas trips.</p>
<p>In September 2024, he completed a four-nation Asia-Pacific tour, the longest of his papacy by duration and distance.</p>
<p>He followed last Sunday’s mass on television from hospital and sent a written address for the Angelus.<br />
“I would have liked to be among you but, as you know, I am here at the Gemelli Hospital because I still need some treatment for my bronchitis,” Francis wrote.</p>
<p>The Jesuit has left open the option of resigning if he became unable to carry out his duties.<br />
His predecessor, Benedict XVI, stunned the world in 2013 by becoming the first pope since the Middle Ages to step down, citing his ailing health.</p>
<p>But in a memoir published last year, Francis wrote that he did “not have any cause serious enough to make me think of resigning.”</p>
<p>Resignation is a “distant possibility” that would be justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”, he wrote.</p>
<p>In an autobiography published last month, he said that despite his ailments, “I carry on”.<br />
“The reality is, quite simply, that I am old,” he said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_9035" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9035" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-medium wp-image-9035" src="https://openlife.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Pope-300x169.jpeg" alt="Anxiety As Vatican Describes Pope’s Health Status As ‘Complex’ Cancels February 22 Jubilee Audience " width="300" height="169" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9035" class="wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Pope Francis</strong></em></figcaption></figure>

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