The Vatican announced a big change of plans Tuesday: It's not sending a delegation to Syria for now.

The trip's being postponed because of the "gravity of the situation" there, Secretary of State for the Vatican Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said.

Last week, Bertone announced that a delegation would visit Syria this week.

"We cannot simply be spectators to this tragedy that is consuming Syria," he said at the time. "The Holy Father has arranged it as such so that a delegation will go to Damascus in the coming days in order to express, on behalf of him and all of us: our fraternal solidarity to the entire population."

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