VATICAN CITY.- “I can’t walk, the doctor has asked me to,” Pope Francis said today. to a group of pilgrims to explain why he did not visit the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, where he received them in audience, to greet them.
“I’m going to say hello to you later, but there’s a problem: this leg isn’t going well, it doesn’t work, and the doctor told me not to walk. I like to walk, but this time I must obey the doctor”Francis told the group of pilgrims from Slovakia.
“That is why I ask you to make the sacrifice of going up the stairs and I greet you here, sitting down. It is a humiliation, but I offer it for your country”, added the Pontiff.
Francis did not go among the faithful of the Paul VI Hall for greetings, but he had himself come to the stage on footwhile he left him with Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, Regent of the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household.
“I would like to come by to greet you all – the Pope confided to the Slovak pilgrims – but I greet you from my heart from here”.
“I pray for you, for your families, for your noble people. Go ahead and courage. And I ask you, please pray for me,” she added.
Francis suffers from knee pain that for some time have forced changes in their agent. He recently underwent specific medical check-ups.
ANSA Agency
