Pope Francis' illness cancels all audiences

Due to Pope Francis' health conditions, all planned audiences have been canceled. The head of the church is likely suffering from the flu.

Pope Francis, due to the mild flu, has canceled his scheduled audiences for Saturday morning, as informed by Vatican sources to journalists.

Among many, the Pope was scheduled to meet the President of Guinea Bissau on that day.

On Friday, December 1, Francis is due to undertake a journey to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where the COP28 climate conference will be held this year.

Pope Francis went to the hospital for tests on Saturday, which confirmed no lung complications.

The Vatican press office reported that Pope Francis was at the Gemelli clinic in Rome, for CT scans on Saturday. The objective was to rule out the possibility of lung complications. The tests came back negative, and the Pope has subsequently returned to Casa Santa Marta, his residence.

The Vatican had informed journalists on Saturday morning about the cancellation of scheduled audiences due to the Pope's mild flu.

On the previous Wednesday, Francis had met with delegations of families of hostages kidnapped in Israel, and separately with Palestinians. Details of both these meetings were discussed during the general audience at the Vatican. He emphasized the Middle East conflict as a form of terrorism, not war.

"This morning, I met two delegations; the Israelis, whose loved ones are hostages in the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinians, whose relatives are incarcerated in Israel. The suffering I heard from both sides is immense," the Pope articulated.