The Vatican is playing down comments that Pope Benedict is looking thinner, tired and weak.
However people who have spent time with him and watching his every movement say they do perceive him weaker, seemingly too tired to engage.
Benedict’s frailty was first highlighted a few weeks ago when, like John Paul II in his later days, he started using a moving platform to spare him the walk down St Peter’s Basilica.
At the time, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ has said Benedict has no medical condition prompting the decision to use the moving platform. Rather it is to spare the soon-to-be 85 year old pontiff the fatigue of a 100 metre walk.
However, a more recent decline has been noted as the Pope prepares for Christmas celebrations at the Vatican which includes two weeks of intense public appearances.
On Thursday last week, breaking with a tradition first established by Paul VI, the Holy Father delivered one general discourse to all ambassadors presenting their letters of credence. Representatives among the group were from Trinidad and Tobago, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, the Swiss Confederation, Burundi, Thailand, Pakistan, Mozambique, Kyrgyzstan, the Principality of Andorra, Sri Lanka and Burkina Faso.
Benedict however has never called in sick. He has had only one known significant medical incident when he broke his right wrist when tripping on the leg of his bed while on vacation in the Alps in 2009.
In the past, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, Pope Benedict’s older brother has a pacemaker for an irregular heartbeat, and expressed concern about Benedict’s own heart.
Lombardi however “keeps mum”, simply saying that the Holy Father realises the limitation of his strength and refuses to give any kind of medical updates on the pope.
“I’m not a doctor. I don’t give medical bulletins,” Lombardi said.
Pausing, he added quietly, “In this phase, At this moment.”
Benedict rallied during his three-day trip to Benin in west Africa last month, braving temperatures of 32 Celsius (90F) and high humidity to deliver a strong message about the future of the Catholic Church in Africa.
Wiping sweat from his brow, he kissed babies who were handed up to him and delivered a tough speech on the need for Africa’s political leaders to clean up their act.
Sources
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