Pope Francis has preferred not to deliver the planned speech before the European Conference of Rabbis due to an indisposition, as he himself has informed those present. The director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, later stated that the Pontiff has “a bit of a cold and a long day of audiences,” and specified that his agenda has not been suspended.
“I greet you all and welcome you. Thank you for this visit that I like so much. But it happens that I am not in good health and that is why I prefer not to read the speech, but rather to hand it to you and have it taken away,” Francisco expressed to the meet European rabbis.
In the speech delivered to those present, he once again launched an appeal for the Holy Land, shaken by “the baseness of hatred and the fatal noise of weapons and has also expressed his concern and condemnation for the” proliferation of anti-Semitic demonstrations.
In any case, despite the indisposition, the Pope has not interrupted his agenda and has also received, this morning, in a private audience, the president of the Catalan Generalitat, Pere Aragonés and, this afternoon, 7,000 children from 84 countries in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, an event sponsored by the Dicastery for Culture.
As indicated by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, during the audience with Pope Francis, they discussed the war situation in Israel and Gaza, in his words, and shared “the need to move towards diplomatic solutions that guarantee right to life and the right to freedom of all people and all peoples”.
On the other hand, regarding his meeting with the 7,000 children, the Pontiff asked them to “always listen carefully to their parents and grandparents” and wanted to have a memory for “the children who, unfortunately, are currently suffering from war, hunger, disease, climate catastrophes and poverty.
He has also urged children to preserve creation, warned them not to waste food, and prayed for all the children suffering because of war, in Palestine, in Ukraine, and elsewhere in the world.
