Pope Francis cancelled his scheduled visit to Rome’s Agostino Gemelli hospital this afternoon because of an “unexpected indisposition,” the Vatican said.
In a short statement, the Vatican said Cardinal Scola would celebrate Mass instead, and give the homily prepared by the Holy Father.
Pope Francis was to meet with some of the patients, hospital and university staff and preside over Holy Mass.
He was also to donate to the Hospital’s Church, which is dedicated to the Sacred Heart, the relics of two popes connected in a special way to the structure: St. John XXIII who inaugurated the first faculty of what was to become the University of the Sacred Heart, and St. John Paul II who was often hospitalised there.
