Pope Francis’s advisors have asked him to take a holiday this year, as he sometimes gets very fatigued.
In the first year of his pontificate, amid a hectic schedule, Pope Francis did not have a break and did not even spend time at the traditional papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo.
Church officials have said that Francis not staying at Castel Gandolfo arose out of his desire to throw off the trappings of papacy and to save money.
“We have been asking him to have holidays this year,” Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga told journalists in Washington last week.
“Because last year he didn’t and sometimes he’s very tired.”
“So I think that during August he’s going to retire to rest,” the cardinal said.
But Cardinal Maradiaga, who heads a council of cardinals advising the Pope, ruled out any notion that the 77-year-old Francis might holiday in his native Argentina.
“Not now, because [Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de] Kirchner wants to use this for her propaganda,” the cardinal explained.
According to a Religion News Service story, papal aides say that Francis “eats work” and thrives on a hectic pace, despite having had part of a lung removed in his younger years.
The Pope also wears orthopaedic shoes to help alleviate chronic lower back pain.
But he is conscious of his limitations, papal aides say, and has occasionally cancelled events if he is feeling tired or ill.
The Newsmax website quoted a medical specialist who suggested recent reports of weight gain and fatigue for Francis indicate he may be slipping into a form of chronic heart failure.
But before the Pope’s recent trip to the Holy Land, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi played down any papal health fears.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Maradiaga said he had heard opponents of Pope Francis say they are praying for the Pontiff to die as soon possible.
Sources
- Religion News Service
- Newsmax
- Image: Aleteia