Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass Saturday with his broken wrist in plaster but bemoaned an inability to clasp his hands together in prayer, his closest officials said. "He is learning to live with a right wrist in plaster," Federico Lombardi told AFP, the day after the pope was hospitalised after a fall while on holiday.
"The most difficult thing for him is having to give up writing."
Lombardi said the 82-year-old pontiff, who is on a two-week holiday in northern Italy, had slept well and would fly by helicopter on Sunday as planned to Romano Canavese, in the nearby Piedmont region, to recite the evening Angelus prayer.
Lombardi said the rest of the pope's programme during his vacation, which is due to end on July 29, was also unchanged.
Some 10,000 people are expected at the ceremony in the town, the birthplace of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican number two.
Bertone told ANSA news agency that the inability to write would hold up progress on Pope Benedict's follow-up to his 2007 book entitled "Jesus of Nazareth."
"The pope already had the text's structure outlined in his head," Bertone said.
He added that Pope Benedict had told him he was feeling pain but that "some suffering is not a bad thing. What pains him the most is to be no longer able to bless with his right hand and to be no longer able to clasp his hands together" in prayer.
After the daily mass, Pope Benedict went for a stroll in a forest.
The German-born pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church since April 2005, had two metal pins inserted into the broken bone in a "routine" operation under local anaesthetic at Aosta hospital on Friday.
He had slipped and fallen in his bedroom during the night, a Vatican statement said.
Pope Benedict's personal physician, cardiologist Patrizio Polisca, said tests had shown that despite his fall the pontiff's general health was good.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Source (AFP)
SV (ED)