The Vatican announced on October 8 that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State, will head a Vatican delegation to the UN climate-change conference in Glasgow later this month. The announcement seemed to indicate that Pope Francis will not attend.

Although the Vatican has never announced plans for a papal trip to the Glasgow meeting, Pope Francis himself said in July, and repeated in November, that he planned to make the trip and speak at the conference. He said, however: “It all depends on how I feel at the time.”

If the Pope does not make the trip, his absence will heighten speculation that he has not returned to full health after his July 4 intestinal surgery.