Pope postpones official audiences but continues meetings at Santa Marta

Vatican News

“The Holy Father celebrated Mass this morning and at the end, as usual, greeted the participants, but decided to postpone today's official audiences,” the Director of the Holy See Press office, Matteo Bruni, said on Friday.  “The meetings on the agenda at Casa Santa Marta continue regularly ", he told journalists.

The previous day, Thursday, Pope Francis had skipped a scheduled penitential service with the clergy of Rome at Saint John Lateran, letting his speech be read by the Vicar of Rome Diocese, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis.  

Bruni explained to journalists that because of “a slight indisposition” the Pope "preferred to stay inside Santa Marta,” where the pontiff lives.  “All other commitments will go ahead regularly,” he said.

In fact, Thursday morning, the Pope celebrated Mass at Santa Marta and later met a delegation of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, an organization that collaborates with the Church for greater protection of the environment, in line with the Holy Father’s encyclical, “Laudato si’.