The 84-year-old pope cannot stand up during Friday’s hearing as he continues to struggle with “problematic” sciatica
- The Pope spoke Friday at the inauguration of the judicial year of the Holy See
- He sat all the time and said his sciatica was an “annoying guest.”
- The pontiff has been forced to cancel several recent events due to health
Pope Francis apologized for sitting down during an audience on Friday, while blaming the sciatica “problematic” that has caused him to cancel several events.
“I’d like to talk to you standing up, but sciatica is an annoying guest,” he told members of the Roman Rota, a Catholic Church tribunal, at the age of 84.
“So I apologize and will speak sitting down,” he added at the meeting that inaugurated the Holy See’s judicial year.
Pope Francis apologized for sitting during an audience on Friday while blaming his sciatica “problematic”
The Argentine pontiff was forced to delegate two masses on Sunday and Monday and postpone the New Year’s greeting
The Argentine pontiff was forced to delegate two masses on Sunday and Monday and postpone his New Year’s greetings on Mondays to the ambassadors of the Holy See due to a sciatica attack.
He also skipped New Year’s Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica as a result of chronic nerve disease that causes pain in his hip and for which he wears orthopedic shoes.
However, he led the Angelus prayer on Sunday at lunchtime as scheduled.
Returning from a trip to Brazil in 2013, the pope told reporters he was suffering from a sciatica attack weeks after he was elected head of the Catholic Church earlier this year.
New Year’s Masses were also skipped in St. Peter’s Basilica as a result of chronic nerve disease.
The pope walks with a slight lameness as a result of sciatica, but has had a generally healthy life
“The worst thing that happened – sorry – was a sciatica attack, really! – that I had the first month, because I was sitting in an armchair doing interviews and it hurt me,” he said when asked about the his time so far in office.
“Sciatica is very painful, very painful! I don’t wish it on anyone!
The pope walks with a slight lameness as a result of sciatica, but has had a generally healthy life, despite having withdrawn part of his lung when he was young after developing pleurisy.
He received the coronavirus vaccine earlier this month alongside his predecessor, former Pope Benedict XVI, who lives in a converted monastery in the Vatican gardens.