The Pope’s long silence at Palm Sunday mass revives rumors about his health at the height of Easter

Concerns for the Pope’s health are renewed after the episode that occurred during the celebrations of Palm Sunday, when the Pontiff He didn’t give the homily, transforming it into a long silence that quickly spread to the 60 thousand faithful who participated in the beginning of Holy Week.

Francis resumed the ceremony with the Creed, while the faithful attributed the silence to a collective reflection decision by the pontiff, in the silence and confusion of those wondering what had happened.

The inevitable deduction was that of a setback due to the problems suffered by the Argentine pontiff following a persistent bronchial disease which prevents him from giving speeches.

At the end of the ceremony the Pope addressed the Angelus celebration and spoke briefly, condemning the “cowardly” terrorist attack that had caused 133 deaths in Moscow.

Francis then got into the Popemobile and walked around St. Peter’s Square for a long time, greeting the faithful who cheered him.

The Vatican has not explained the Pope’s silence. He simply clarified to Vatican supporters that, having not been delivered, the homily was “non-existent”.

Until now, the Pope has had to deal with respiratory problems that make it difficult for him to deliver long speeches due to the coughing fits he has been suffering from for months. One of his collaborators is in charge of reading them.

Doubts and worries

Sunday’s is 1amThe only time the Pope surrenders without resorting to the help of a collaborator ecclesiastical, nor give explanations.

The main Italian newspaper, il Corriere della Seraasked what had happened on Palm Sunday in St. Peter’s Square to none other than the surgeon Sergio Alfieri, the specialist who operated on the Pope twice and who is director of surgery at the Gemelli Polyclinic, where the pontiff was hospitalized on several occasions.

“His silence at the end of the reading of the Gospel seemed eternal,” commented the Milanese newspaper.

«Bergoglio often asked for help from collaborators. Now a new unexpected event. “Was it the fault of bronchitis, for the breathing difficulties he suffers from?”, the journalist asked Alfieri.

“I don’t find any worrying situations”, was the surgeon’s dry reply.

-What are the Pope’s health conditions? Three weeks ago he underwent a new total body CT scan one month after the previous one, on November 25th.

Alfieri responded that “the Holy Father is well, compatible with his age and with his episodes of respiratory difficulty in the colder periods, also due to the lung operations he underwent many years ago”.

The surgeon is referring to the operation that Jorge Bergoglio underwent at the age of 21 in Buenos Aires, in which part of the lobe of his right lung was removed.

He Corriere della Sera asks the Pope’s surgeon “why does he seem so tired lately?”

Alfieri replies that «he is a man with the responsibility of head of the Vatican State, who must make decisions. When he looks out of that window (on Sunday, when he says the Angelus at midday), he is addressing a billion and a half Catholics, something that doesn’t happen to everyone at his age.”

Dr. Alfieri also says that «the Holy Father has the mind of a sixty-year-old and manages to anticipate us, still governing the Vatican State without problems, in first person. He has, as is normal for him, the ailments of someone who is 87 years old, and who generally leads a quieter life and stays in bed watching television. He can’t afford it. But he doesn’t miss a commitment, or almost.”

There are many questions that these words leave open. Is the Pope able to face his next commitments, those of 2024? Some answers will arrive in these days, due to the intense commitments of Holy Week, which will culminate on Friday evening with the pilgrimage to the Colosseum, and on Easter Sunday with the celebrations that end with the resurrection.

Francisco’s agenda

The Pope says “go on“, let’s move on. On April 28th he is planning a busy trip to Venice, invited to the Biennale.

When asked how he is, Francisco invariably responds with a joke: “Well, I’m still alive.”

The reality is that the Pope He is not in serious health conditions but you can’t stop scaling down your exhausting daily effort. He is the absolute sovereign of the Church, which already forces him to make an exhausting physical and intellectual effort. He is also a head of state who maintains diplomatic relations with 180 states.

Practically every day he receives people from all over the world in public, to whom he explains how he can see the bronchitis that is tiring him and which his doctors are trying to control so that it does not damage his lungs.

In October this year he has the most difficult job. The second part of the Synod of Synods, the world assembly of bishops. The first phase has already taken place in October 2023. But now the crucial problems of the Church must be addressed, including the dangerous tournament between progressives and traditionalists. It will be a great effort to control the clashes.

Furthermore, Francesco has several European trips planned, starting with Slovenia in June, which will visit the Italian city of Trieste.

But the hardest test is a twelve-day journey, scheduled for August, the longest trip of his eleven years of pontificate, which will begin in Papua New Guinea and continue in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. East Timor will continue and a fourth country is being studied, between the Solomon Islands and Singapore.

Francesco is accustomed to this hustle and bustle. He has already made 44 apostolic journeys to 60 countries. But the eleventh year, which began on the 13th of this month, the anniversary of his election to the papacy, shows so much effort that it is considered difficult for him to respect.

And there remains a possible trip to Argentina and Uruguay, another to Belgium and his presence, in December, at the solemn reopening of the Notre Dame Basilica in Paris, which was burned down on 15 April 2019 and laboriously restored.