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“Excuse me, but I have a very bad cold,” explained Pope Francis as he received a delegation from the Italian Federation of the Ball-game "Bocce" this morning, December 20, 2024.
The Pontiff, who spoke in a breathless voice, nevertheless read two speeches in full during his morning audiences.
Earlier in the morning, the 88-year-old pontiff was absent from the Roman Curia's Advent sermon, which takes place every Friday in December. He did, however, honor his subsequent appointments, delivering the two scheduled speeches, to Catholic Action youth and to the athletes.
“I'm sorry, but I've got a cold,” he confided to the latter at the start of his speech, in a voice that was clearly out of breath. The Argentine pontiff regularly suffers from respiratory ailments during the winter months. At the beginning of 2024, a persistent bout of bronchitis forced him to entrust a collaborator with the reading of his speeches for several weeks. This might be linked to the severe lung infection he had as a youth, which resulted in the removal of part of one lung.
In front of the athletes, the Pontiff expressed his admiration for the sport, “a poor game compared to the stars of the billion-dollar contracts that always fill the media. These champions are “normal people who have a passion for this game, which may be a little old-fashioned but is rich in humanity,” he said.
He hailed it as “an alternative sport to the big sports business machine,” an “inclusive” sport, and “a healthy and quiet form of entertainment.”
