Pope Benedict XVI made use of the same mobile platform used by his long-ailing predecessor John Paul II for the first time on Sunday, with the Vatican saying it was to “ease his tiredness.”
The 84-year-old pope used the wheeled platform to make his way from the sacristy to the altar of St Peter’s Basilica for a Sunday mass in honour of global evangelisation. It was pushed by a group of special Vatican porters.
Starting in December 1999, John Paul II who was 79 at the time and suffering from Parkinson's disease began making use of the platform in the basilica.
Vatican spokesman said there was “no illness or diagnosis” behind the use of the platform, adding that it would simply “ease his tiredness” as well as increase the pope’s security, religious news agency i.media reported.
Pope Benedict was shoved by a young mentally disturbed woman during his procession in the basilica on Christmas Eve 2009.
Since August, the pope has appeared particularly unsteady on his feet. Some commentators had speculated that Benedict could make use of the traditional portable throne — known as a sedia gestatoria — on which popes were carried by porters until 1978 before the election of John Paul II.
Meanwhile, the Pope today declared a “Year of Faith” starting on October 11, 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vatican II Council which approved key Catholic Church reforms
“I would like to announce that I have decided to decree a year of faith,” the pope said in his homily, addressing some 8,000 delegates taking part in the Vatican-hosted conference on evangelisation at a mass in St Peter’s Basilica.
(AFP).
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