By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY, March 10 (Reuters) – A decade ago, when he became Latin America’s first pope, former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had a lithe gait and a slimmer waist.
Today Pope Francis, 86, uses a cane and wheelchair due to persistent knee disease, and his waistline has increased significantly due to a more sedentary lifestyle in the Vatican, which started even before his leg problem. .
But the leader of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, who celebrates his 10th anniversary of pontificate on March 13, appears to be healthy and stable for a man his age.
“You don’t run the Church with a knee, you run the Church with your head,” he told an attendee after he started using a wheelchair in public for the first time on May 5, 2022.
Returning from a trip to Canada last July, Francis acknowledged that his advanced age and difficulty walking might have ushered in a slower phase of his papacy.
Francisco alternates the use of the cane with the wheelchair and has continued with the same number of public and private hearings as before his knee became a constant problem last year.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an Irish-American Vatican official, called the pope a great example for older people who face mobility issues.
“He accepts his limitations with a lot of mind and heart. I think he is an example for all of us. We must not hide the fact that with age comes a decline in our ability to play an active role. in the life of the world today.” Farrell told reporters last year.
NO RETIREMENT PLAN
One of the main differences with the past is that, since April 2022, the pope is no longer the main celebrant of public masses, which would require him to stand for hours. He delegated this role to a high-ranking cardinal, while continuing to preside over services and deliver a homily.
Francisco told Reuters in an interview in July last year that he preferred not to have knee surgery because he didn’t want the long-term negative effects of the anesthesia he underwent. after an operation of the intestine in July 2021 are repeated.
He said he has no plans to resign anytime soon and if he does eventually it will be for serious health reasons, such as a severe disability.
In the 2022 interview with Reuters, he also called “court gossip” the rumors that cancer had been discovered during the 2021 operation for diverticulitis, a common colon condition in the elderly.
Two months ago he said the condition had returned and was causing him to gain weight, but he wasn’t too worried. He gave no further details.
Francisco had part of a lung removed due to illness over 60 years ago as a young man in Argentina, but that doesn’t seem to have been a factor in his overall health since then. .
(Report by Philip Pullella. Editing in Spanish by Marion Giraldo)