(ZENIT News / Rome, 14.02.2025).- At the end of the audiences on Friday morning, February 14 (to the Prime Minister of Slovakia, the President of CNN Television Channel, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle and members of the Gaudium et Spes Foundation, Pope Francis was admitted to Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, to undergo some necessary diagnostic tests and continue in hospital his treatment for bronchitis, which has been affecting him for at least three weeks.
Over the past two and a half weeks the Pope has had a reader deliver his addresses, with the exception of the address for the San Remo Festival, which he himself read fully.
Following the Holy Father’s hospitalization, the Jubilee Audience of Saturday, February 15, has been cancelled. The Holy Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, on Sunday, February 16, will now be presided over by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education
The Pontiff’s meeting with artists, planned for Monday the 17th in Cinecittà, has also been cancelled.
Update (18:31 Rome time): As a result of an exacerbation of bronchitis, Pope Francis underwent specialized examinations and began inpatient drug therapy. The first examinations carried out show an infection of the respiratory tract. His clinical condition is discreet; he has a slight fever. In response to questions from journalists, the spokesman for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, affirmed that the Pope is serene, in good spirits, and that he has read some newspapers.
