By Elise Harris
Vatican City, Jun 27, 2014 / 07:24 am
As spectators were awaiting the visit of Pope Francis to a Roman hospital, it was announced by Bishop Claudio Giuliodori that the pontiff cancelled his visit due to a "sudden indisposition."
Bishop Giuliodori, General Ecclesiastical Assistant of the University of the Sacred Heart, read the announcement to those waiting for the Holy Father. The cancellation was later confirmed by Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J.
Pope Francis was scheduled to visit Rome's Agostino Gemelli hospital, which is attached to the University of the Sacred Heart, at 3:30 p.m. in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its foundation.
Named after the Franciscan friar who established it, the hospital serves as a medical school for the Milan-based university, and is the official hospital of the Holy Father, who has a special suite of rooms reserved there.
After his arrival the pontiff was slated to say Mass in the square outside the faculty, which would have made him the fifth pope to visit the hospital since its founding.
