Pope Francis, 85, weakened by joint problems, had to use a lifting platform for the first time on Saturday to board his plane, bound for Malta.
The sovereign pontiff boarded around 8:00 a.m. at Rome-Fiumicino airport on an ITA aircraft using a platform reserved for people with reduced mobility, noted AFP journalists who are accompanying him on his two-week trip. days on the small Mediterranean island.
François suffers from sciatica and recurrent hip pain that makes him limp. Friday at the Vatican during an audience before representatives of the indigenous communities of Canada, he was obviously moving with difficulty.
He was hospitalized for ten days in July 2021 after undergoing a delicate colon operation under general anesthesia.
In January, he had to forgo a walkabout at the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican due to knee pain. “It seems that it happens to old people, I don’t know why it happens to me,” he joked.
In February, he had to give up a trip to Florence for the same reasons.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope in 2013 after the surprise resignation of his predecessor Benedict XVI, the first pope to renounce the throne of Saint Peter since the Middle Ages.