The Vatican later said at noon Rome time that Pope Francis’ last appointment of the day, a meeting with the YMCA Italy, had been canceled.
It also confirmed that other meetings went forward as planned.
The pope met with the former president of the Communion and Liberation movement, Father Julián Carrón; the director of the World Food Program, David M. Beasley; and Father Pasquale Spinoso.
Pope Francis also had a meeting with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints, to approve the advancement of the beatification causes of five servants of God and a miracle attributed to the intercession of one venerable.
On the afternoon of Feb. 22, the pope celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass at the fifth-century Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill.