Vatican cancels more Holy Year events as Pope remains hospitalised with respiratory infection

Vatican cancels events as Pope Francis hospitalized with respiratory infection, delegating duties as he remains in hospital.

The Vatican on Tuesday (February 18, 2025) cancelled papal audiences through the weekend and delegated others to cover for Pope Francis as the 88-year-old Pope remained hospitalised with a multi-pronged respiratory infection.

The cancellations put a damper on upcoming events of the Vatican's big Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration of Catholicism that is aimed at encouraging pilgrims to come to Rome to participate in special Jubilee activities. Expected to draw some 30 million people to Rome, the Holy Year is packed with special papal audiences and Masses throughout 2025, some of which have now been put into question given Francis' illness.

Pope Francis was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital in a “fair” condition on Friday after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. On Monday, medical personnel determined that he was suffering from a polymicrobial respiratory tract infection, meaning a mix of viruses, bacteria and possibly other organisms had colonized in his respiratory tract.

The Vatican has given no indication of how long he might remain hospitalised, only saying that the treatment of such a “complex clinical picture” would require an “adequate” stay.

This Holy Year weekend was dedicated to deacons, the Ministry that is a necessary step for men who are preparing to become priests. Francis was supposed to have presided over a special audience with them on Saturday and ordained them during a Mass on Sunday.

The Vatican on Tuesday announced the audience was cancelled and that the archbishop who is organising the Jubilee would celebrate the Mass. It's a similar arrangement that the Vatican announced last weekend, when artists in town had to settle for a cardinal presiding over their special Mass.

The next Jubilee events on the calendar that would typically involve the pope are the March 8-9 weekend dedicated to volunteers.