Benedict XVI is doing “well” and is “in a good mood”.He is “learning how to live with a wrist in plaster and has been equipped with a small recorder to dictate his thoughts, as he is unable to use a pen with ease these days,” said Fr Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, as he described the Pope’s rest in Les Combes, in Italy’s Valle d’Aosta region.
His inability to use the pen, which he prefers to do, is the Pope’s main concern after he broke his right wrist.
In his daily report, Father Lombardi said that Holy Father is “in regular communication by telephone with his brother”, with whom he has a close relationship.
In a few days, his brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger, “will be at Castelgandolfo to spend the weeks of August together with the Pope, as has been customary in past years.”
The Pontiff also continues to make a short walk after lunch and in the late afternoon, enjoying the “great serenity and tranquillity” offered by this mountain location.
Today “Cardinal Bertone arrived by helicopter at 10.30 am from Romano Canavese,” father Lombardi said.
“He will have an audience with the Pope and the two will lunch together. In the afternoon he will be back in Romano Canavese before returning to Rome tomorrow morning.”
In the Italian capital “Cardinal Bertone has been invited by the Speaker of the Italian Senate Schifani to hold a conference in the Senate on 28 July building on the Pope’s [latest] Encyclical.”
Meanwhile final touches are being put to the Pope’s next public appointment on Friday at 5.30 pm.
The Holy Father will travel to Aosta by open car. In the city’s central square, he will be met by a delegation of local authorities.
From there he will travel through the city centre, passing through the ancient Pretoria gateway on his way to the cathedral.
There he will preside over the celebration of Vespers with about 400 priests, men and women religious, two lay representatives from each local parish and representatives of Church organisations.
The liturgy for the Vespers and the Pope’s homily will be in Italian and French.
Following the celebration, Benedict XVI will emerge from the cathedral onto the parvis of the cathedral to greet the faithful.
Finally, on his return to Introd, he will visit and greet residents at a local retirement home.
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