Concern for the pope's health came back to the fore this weekend after Francis was unable to read the speech he was due to deliver at Friday's final audience at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.
The pontiff apologized to the participants of the symposium Unversité des comunicants in Eglise, promoted by the French Bishops' Conference, and explained: "I have a bit of bronchitis." It's the same disease that has created health problems for him in the past. On December 17, Pope Bergoglio turned 87 years old.
However, this Saturday it resumed its activities. He brought together more than 800 priests, deacons and religious in Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran to discuss some important issues and answered their questions.
In 2023, the Pope was hospitalized due to several illnesses. The most tenacious one again affected his bronchial tubes and lungs.
Due to pneumonia, he was hospitalized for several days in March at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, where there is a sector dedicated exclusively to the pontiff.
In June, he underwent surgery on his abdomen to remove internal scars. The Pope recovered very well.
The pope took part in a symposium with French university students on Friday, but was unable to read his speech. Photo: REUTERS
In November, acute bronchitis forced him to cancel a trip to Dubai to participate in the United Nations global climate symposium. In his place he sent one of his closest collaborators, the Vatican's secretary of state, Pietro Parolin.
This Friday, as has happened to him on other occasions in recent months, the pope had a very intense schedule of audiences and when he arrived at the last meeting, Jorge Bergoglio, who was very tired, said to the French university students who were attending: "I would like to read you the whole speech, but I have a problem, I cannot speak well."
Attendees received a written copy. The pope again explained that he had difficulty speaking, adding: "Thank you for your understanding." At the end, he greeted the communicators one by one and blessed them "because I don't have to speak to say hello."
Pope Francis defends document on same-sex couples
Pope Francis claimed Saturday that the blessing on same-sex couples, approved by a recent Vatican document, is aimed at "the people," in a closed-door meeting with Roman clergy, who raised doubts about the issue.
"The pope has clarified the situation a bit. The intention is to bless people," the vicar bishop of Rome, Angelo De Donatis, told Italian public television RAI at the end of the meeting.
The official media outlet "Vatican News" reported that Francis clarified that these blessings do not change the doctrine of the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman and that in the end "people are blessed, not sin," according to the website.
The Pope, this Saturday in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, cathedral of Rome, with the local clergy. Photo: EFE
Likewise, in response to questions from an African priest, the pope admitted that the culture of Africa does not accept these blessings - in many of its countries homosexuality is a crime - and that this debate has already been clarified to Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, EFE news agency reported.
The meeting with the clergy took place in the midst of the storm unleashed by the possibility of imparting blessings to same-sex couples or couples in an "irregular" situation from the canonical point of view, although without justifying them or equating them with marriage.
On December 18, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the declaration "Fiducia Supplians" in which it opened the possibility of imparting a spontaneous blessing without rites to such couples.
This historic opening by Pope Francis has raised doubts and certain divisions as part of the clergy around the world, its most conservative faction and bishops such as the Africans have branded it "blasphemy" and refuse to impart the blessing.
The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, author of the document, defended in the text that "one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or altering in any way the perennial teaching of the Church on marriage."
In the face of the controversy, Cardinal Fernandez had to clarify on January 4 that the blessing of homosexual couples will not be "liturgical or ritualized" and that it will not be their "justification."
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