(SE): On the evening of November 28 [Rome time], a statement released by the Director of the Holy See Press Office said, “Even though the Holy Father’s general health situation has improved in relation to the flu and respiratory tract inflammation he has been suffering from, his doctors have asked the pope not to undertake his scheduled visit to Dubai in the coming days, on the occasion of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”
Vatican News reported that Matteo Bruni, director of the press office, said that upon the advice of the doctors, Pope Francis “with great regret” has cancelled his visit to Dubai.
“The pope’s condition is good and stabler,” Bruni said, but his doctors say it is preferable that he continues to rest and not have to face the strain that every journey entails.
On the morning of November 28, Pope Francis did meet with the president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña Palacios, for 25 minutes at the Casa Santa Marta.
Recovering from flu-like symptoms, Pope Francis had led the recitation of the midday Angelus prayer on November 26 from his residence at the Casa Santa Marta instead of the usual window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Vatican News reported. Monsignor Paolo Braida, head of Office at the Secretariat of State, read the pope’s reflections before the Angelus and his additional message following the prayer.
The pope had cancelled his scheduled events for November 25 due to “flu-like” symptoms. That afternoon he visited the Gemelli Isola Hospital for a scan of his lungs that yielded negative results for any risk of pulmonary complications.
Pilgrims and visitors who had gathered in the square participated via the large video screens broadcasting the event.
In his reflection on the Sunday gospel, Pope Francis said that the “Lord, our King, is concerned about the hungry, the homeless, the sick, and the imprisoned,” adding, “These are realities that are all too present today: the poor crowd our streets, as the Lord remembers the sick and those in prison paying the consequences of their mistakes.”
Vatican News reported that the pope recommended that we examine our own lives and how much we recognise and believe in the centrality of mercy, the power of love, how charity is indispensable for believers, and if we are a “friend of the King” in being “personally involved in the needs of the suffering people I find on my path.”
Pope Francis, who will turn 87 on December 17, looked tired and coughed a few times as he sat throughout the Sunday broadcast, America magazine reported on November 26.
“In addition to war, our world is threatened by another great danger, the climate, that puts at risk life on earth, especially for the future generations. And this is contrary to the plan of God who created everything for life,” the pope said In his message after the Angelus, adding, “Next weekend, I will travel to the United Arab Emirates to address COP28 in Dubai, on Saturday.” He thanked “all those who will accompany me with prayer on this trip, and with the commitment to take to heart the safeguarding of the common home.”
Referring to war, America reported the pope recalling that on the previous day, November 25, Ukraine marked Holomodor [death by hunger] the man-made famine and genocide in then Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions. “The martyred Ukraine commemorated the Holodomor, the genocide perpetrated by the Soviet regime 90 years ago that caused the death by hunger of millions of persons. That lacerating wound instead of healing has been made more painful yet by the atrocities of the war that continues to make this dear people suffer,” the pope said.
He called on all the faithful to “continue to pray without tiring for all the peoples torn apart by conflicts, because prayer is the force of peace that can interrupt the spiral of hate, break the circle of vendetta, and open unexpected paths of reconciliation.”
Pope Francis also spoke of the 50-day-long Israeli-Hamas conflict that started on October 7, with the attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis, and the bombing in Gaza and incursion carried out in retaliation by Israel that has killed over 15,000 Palestinians, including at least 6,000 children, America reported.
The pope said, “today we thank God because there is finally a truce between Israel and Palestine and some hostages have been released. Let us pray that soon all of them will be [released]—we think of their families, and that humanitarian aid will enter Gaza and that dialogue can begin: it’s the only way, the one road to peace. He who does not want to dialogue, does not want peace.”
