Ailing Pope Will Miss UN Climate Summit

Pope Francis canceled his trip to Dubai for the UN climate conference on doctors' orders Tuesday, even though he is recovering from the flu and lung inflammation, the Vatican said. Francis, who turns 87 next month, was scheduled to leave Rome on Friday to address the COP28 meeting first thing Saturday morning. He also was supposed to inaugurate a faith pavilion Sunday on the sidelines of the conference before returning home, the AP reports. The pope revealed Sunday that he had lung inflammation but said at the time that he still planned to go to Dubai, where he was to become the first pontiff to address a UN climate conference. Care for the environment has been a priority for Francis.

Until the announcement late Tuesday, all of the information from the Vatican indicated the trip would proceed. The Vatican spokesman held his traditional pre-trip briefing earlier in the day and fielded questions about Francis' planned bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Dubai conference. The Vatican travel agency accepted payment for journalists to fly on the papal plane, and the Vatican press office finalized accreditation details. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis was improving from the flu and inflammation of his respiratory tract that had forced him to cancel his audiences Saturday. But "the doctors have asked the pope not to make the trip planned for the coming days to Dubai." "Pope Francis accepted the doctors' request with great regret and the trip is therefore canceled," he added.

Francis came down with the flu late last week. On Sunday, he skipped his traditional appearance at his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square to avoid the cold. Instead, Francis gave the traditional noon blessing in a televised appearance from the chapel in the Vatican hotel where he lives and asked a priest to read his written daily reflections out loud. He coughed and spoke in a whisper, and sported the cannula in which he was receiving antibiotics intravenously. Recruiting a substitute speaker was a first for this pope and recalled how St. John Paul II frequently had other prelates read his remarks in his final years as he battled the effects of Parkinson's disease. (President Biden is also skipping the climate summit.)