VaticanPope refrains from speaking due to "severe cold"
SDA
5.2.2025 - 10:47
Pope Francis listens as his collaborator Don Pierluigi Giroli (r) reads his message for him during the weekly general audience in Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. The Pope asked him to do so because he has a sore throat. Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP/dpa
Keystone
Pope Francis has caught another severe cold. The 88-year-old leader of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide refrained from reciting a text himself at the weekly general audience in the Vatican. In his place, a priest read the prepared statement from a sheet of paper.
Keystone-SDA
05.02.2025, 10:47
SDA
Due to his ailing health, Francis has had to change the program several times in the past. In winter, his respiratory system in particular has been causing him problems for some time now.
Second oldest pope in history
During his appearance on Wednesday, the pontiff said: "I would like to apologize. With this severe cold, it is difficult for me to speak. That is why I have asked one of my confreres to read the catechesis. He will read it better than me." As is usually the case at official appointments, he sat in a wheelchair.
At the age of 88, Francis is now the second oldest Pope in history. Born in Argentina, he has been in office since 2013 as the successor to Benedict XVI. According to Vatican records, only Pope Leo XIII was even older: the Italian died in 1903 at the age of 93. Francis' German predecessor, whose real name was Joseph Ratzinger, lived to be 95, but had already stepped down nine years before his death on New Year's Eve 2022.