Pope halts speech saying he has ‘a touch of bronchitis’

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis was unable to complete a speech on Friday, complaining of “a touch of bronchitis” during an address to a group of French religious communications experts at the Vatican.

The 87-year-old pontiff suffered from an acute lung infection in November which caused him to cancel a planned trip to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai and have aides read his speeches for a couple of weeks.

Francis was meeting participants of the symposium “Université des Communicants en Église” organized by the French Bishops’ Conference when he had to interrupt his welcome message.

“I would like to read all the speech, but there is a problem, I have a touch of bronchitis,” he said in a raspy voice.

The pope had already delivered other speeches earlier on Friday during meetings with young professionals and a committee promoting relations between the Catholic, Orthodox and Oriental churches.

At a later engagement on Friday, Francis did not read his speech to members of a Catholic scientific body, who instead received it in written form, the Vatican said. —REUTERS