The Vatican said that Pope Francis is being closely and constantly monitored for any signs of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The 83-year-old Pope met recently with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who was later on tested positive for the virus last weekend upon his arrival in Manila. Tagle is currently asymptomatic according to latest reports.
Tagle had a private meeting with Francis on August 29. He went on a COVID-19 test last September 10 and yielded a positive result.
“We are being prudent,” Secretary of State Pietro Parolin told ANSA news agency. “There is no particular alarm in the Vatican but the health of the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics was being “constantly monitored.”
Pope Francis, whose birth name is Jorge Bergoglio, has shown little fear for his own health since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic early this year.
“Cardinal Chito came home also to visit his elderly parents in Imus, Cavite. Now he is prevented from doing so because he has to stay in isolation in the next 14 days,” said Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, acting president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, in a letter to his fellow bishops on Saturday, September 12.
“Fortunately, he is asymptomatic. May I ask you to please have him included in all your daily Mass intentions until he recovers fully from COVID-19 so that he can resume his important ministry for the universal Church?” David said.
