A bishop has rebuked comments made by priests on their YouTube channel about praying for Pope Francis to die as soon as possible.
Archbishop Francisco Cerro Chaves of Toledo posted an announcement on the archdiocese website saying it rejected the comments and warned that it could take “corrective measures,” without elaborating.
The statement followed an episode of a program on YouTube called “The Sacristy of the Vendée. A counter-revolutionary priestly gathering” earlier this month. In it, a Toledo priest makes an introductory salute saying, “I also pray rather a lot for the Pope, in order that he can go to heaven as soon as possible.”
Another priest expresses his support for this while the conversation group, which involved six Spanish-speaking priests from different countries, laughed over the comments.
The group then went on to debate different religious, social and political issues, mostly from a conservative standpoint.
In his statement, Chavez says he expresses his “profound rejection of any manifestation of disaffection towards the person and ministry of the Holy Father,” adding that it has told the priests they need to seek forgiveness.
Pope Francis hugs a baby at the tip of his weekly general audience within the Paul VI Hall, on the Vatican on Wednesday
(Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
The statement says the archbishopric isn’t accountable for or represented by the statements made by the priests in the web program.
In messages posted on its X platform account, The Sacristy of the Vendée group apologized. “We are sorry for the unlucky comment, said in a humorous tone, about ‘praying for the Pope to go to Heaven as soon as possible,’” it said.
“It is a comment in bad taste and, even though it doesn’t express wishes for the death of the Pope, as some media have maliciously spread, … we understand that it may well be understood that way,” the group said.
Pope Francis, who has been affected by influenza, made a temporary trip to a Roman hospital for medical checks on Wednesday but was in a position to return to the Vatican, his office said in an announcement.
The pope, who’s 87, had checks on the Tiber Island hospital after his weekly general audience, the statement said, without providing further details.
Francis underwent the identical procedure at the identical hospital in November, following one other bout of influenza. The scan allows doctors to see detailed internal images of a patient’s body.
Televised images on Wednesday showed a Vatican-registered white Fiat – a model Francis uses commonly – leaving the medical facility within the centre of Rome at around midday (1100 GMT).
Pope Francis delivers his speech during his weekly general audience within the Paul VI Hall
(Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
The pontiff earlier skipped a reading at his Wednesday weekly audience, delegating the duty to an aide and telling the faithful he was still not well.
“Dear brothers and sisters, I still have a little bit of a chilly,” Francis said on the audience on Wednesday, announcing that another person would read his catechesis on envy and vainglory, two of the seven deadly sins.
The pope spoke at the tip of his audience, sounding hoarse and coughing a bit, to greet among the faithful and issue calls for peace, as is customary.
Francis, who has had plenty of health issues recently, had cancelled appointments on Saturday and on Monday as a consequence of what the Vatican called a light flu. On Sunday, he addressed crowds in St Peter’s Square as normal, to deliver his Angelus message.
