Editor’s Note: If one has the flu and severe lung inflammation, the last thing one should do is go to the Paul VI Hall, which is cold and drafty, and sit in the presence of hundreds of other persons who may be carrying untold pathogens from 5 other continents. But that is what Pope Francis did today, while omitting speaking, other than a few words, in a very soft voice, saying he was ill.  — The Vatican’s explanations of his state of health continue to differ from the personal comportment of the pope, either being seemingly too reassuring or incongruent with his decisions to omit speaking or attending events. — Is Pope Francis committing an act of bravado, to tell the world he is not as sick as he thinks they think he is, like John Paul II did when he refused in his final illness to stay in the hospital but returned to the Vatican with a severe infection of the urinary tract, dying only a short time later due to this imprudence? — Or is it that Pope Francis does not have a flu, but is suffering from some other grave malady?

The Daily Beast, a Marxist publication, allegedly gives us the skinny on Monday Nov. 27th (here below) … that the pope’s health has improved and he will go to Dubai, which might have been true, or may be just was the hope of the International – a report which immediately was contradicted, when the Holy See affirmed yesterday that Pope Francis would not be attending the Climate Summit on Dec. 1st.. Yet it affirmed Pope Francis was receiving antibiotics intravenously, which is done only in serious cases or when one suffers from digestive problems (such as he may, due to his degenerative colitis).