Pope Francis has met film director Martin Scorsese as the pontiff resumed holding audiences after a bout of fever forced him to cancel engagements this week.
A Vatican schedule of his appointments for Saturday showed the 86-year-old pontiff had received one Vatican-based archbishop and four groups.
Among those he greeted was Scorsese, whose films include Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and The Last Temptation of Christ, during a conference promoted by the publication La Civilta Cattolica and Georgetown University.
Concerns for the health of Francis had been raised after he missed meetings on Friday.
The Vatican said he had felt tired and unwell the previous day after insisting on individually meeting a large number of people from his school foundation.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a Vatican spokesman, said: “He wanted to greet all of them and probably at a certain point lost his resistance.”
It was back in March when Francis last suffered a serious fever. He was taken to hospital at the time and found to have acute bronchitis.
After receiving intravenous antibiotics he was released three days later and returned to his duties, which included a three-day trip to Hungary at the end of April.
He is due to preside over Pentecost Mass on Sunday in St Peter’s Basilica, and hold an official audience with Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Monday.
Francis, who became pope 10 years ago, is missing part of one lung.
It was removed when he was a young man in his native Argentina.
Read more:
‘Selfish’ young Italians should have more children, Pope says
Sex is a ‘beautiful thing’, Francis says in documentary
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Originally called Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis was archbishop of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires from 1998 until he was elected pope in 2013.
Since he assumed the papacy, he has been forced to cancel some events, sometimes at the last minute, because of illness.
He was first hospitalised as pope in 2021 for an operation to remove part of his colon.
Last year he hinted he may resign if his health continued to deteriorate.
That suggestion came after he was pictured using a wheelchair for the first time in public due to mobility issues caused by a flare-up of sciatica – a nerve condition that causes leg ache.
The late Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign for more than 600 years in 2013 instead of ruling for life.
