Papal trip to Luxembourg, Belgium still on schedule despite pope’s flu

ROME – Despite cancelling his scheduled meetings and audiences Monday due to a “mild flu-like condition,” Pope Francis is still expected to travel to Luxembourg and Belgium this week as planned.

In a Sept. 23 statement, the Vatican announced that “due to a mild case of influenza, and as a precaution the trip in the coming days, the papal audiences scheduled for today are cancelled.”

However, on the same day, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni held a news briefing on the pope’s Sept. 26-29 visit to Luxembourg and Belgium, giving no indication that the trip was at risk of being cancelled.

When asked about the pope’s health, Bruni told journalists that “the information I gave you this morning remains the same. The audiences have been cancelled,” and for the time being, he said, there are no more updates.

Pope Francis, 87, has been in relatively good health all year, and recently returned from a 12-day odyssey to Asia and Oceania, making a sprawling 4-nation trip with stops in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

Throughout the Sept. 2-13 trip, the pope appeared energetic and in general good form, and since returning, he has carried out his regular schedule of meetings and events with no issue.

Last year the elderly pontiff suffered several health scares, including two hospital stays – one for a serious bout of bronchitis and the other for surgery to repair an abdominal hernia.

He was also often forced to cancel audiences due to cold or flu-like conditions or was forced to have aides read speeches for him due to breathlessness, as the pontiff is missing part of one lung as a result of a serious case of pneumonia when he was a young Jesuit.

In December, he was forced to cancel a trip to Dubai to attend a United Nations climate summit, which would have made him the first pope to attend one of the gatherings in person, due to a respiratory infection.

Pope Francis also suffers from chronic sciatica and from knee troubles that often confine him to a wheelchair or the use of a cane. He has also had surgery for cataracts.

However, this year the pontiff has shown remarkable resilience, making several daytrips within Italy, including to Venice, Verona, Trieste, and Bari, where he attended a G7 meeting over the summer.

Currently Pope Francis has no other announced travel plans this year, having denied rumors that he would attend the inaugural Mass for the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Dec. 8 during an inflight press conference returning from Singapore.

Once he returns from Luxembourg and Belgium, he will preside over the Oct. 2-27 closing session for his Synod of Bishops on Synodality, a multi-year global consultation process that will come to a close this year with a second Rome-based gathering.

While in Luxembourg and Belgium, Pope Francis will meet with national leaders and civil authorities in each country, as well as members of the local Catholic communities.

In Belgium, he will also hold meetings with the world of academia, meeting professors and students of both the Catholic University of Leuven and the Catholic University of Louvain – universities with close ties to theologians who played key roles in the Second Vatican Council, as well as those associated with liberation theology.

Francis is also expected to hold private meetings with officials and leaders in the European Union who are present at his official events, though a list of those encounters has not been released.

Bruni during Monday’s briefing said he would provide details on any private meetings the pope has as it becomes available, as well as any relevant updates on the pope’s health.

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