The Pope suspends his year-end celebrations due to a "painful sciatica"

Pope Francis, this Wednesday during an audience at the Vatican.VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT / EFE

Pope Francis will not participate in the end of the year celebrations, the Masses of December 31 in the afternoon and January 1 in the morning, due to a “painful sciatica” that has worsened in recent days and that is forcing to rest.

The Pontiff will be replaced in these celebrations, which close the year and welcome the new and which are celebrated in the Basilica of Saint Peter by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, and by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State .

On the other hand, as confirmed by the director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, Francis will lead the Angelus prayer on January 1, without the presence of the faithful, from the library of the Apostolic Palace.

In the celebration of the 31st, Cardinal Re read the homily that Francis had prepared for the occasion and in which he prayed for the sick, the families that have lost some of their members, those who have suffered loneliness or those who have lost the job.

He also wondered about the meaning of a drama such as the current health emergency and noted: “Perhaps we can find the meaning of this drama that is the pandemic and of other scourges that hit humanity here: by awakening compassion in us and provoking attitudes and gestures of closeness, care, solidarity ”.

Francisco has suffered from sciatica problems for a long time, he already suffered from them when he was archbishop in Buenos Aires, he receives treatment for it and on some occasions he has difficulty walking correctly.

In his first year as Pope, during the return flight from a trip to Brazil, a journalist asked him about the episodes that had brought him the most joy and suffering in his first months of pontificate and Francis replied that the most painful thing had been a sciatica attack.

"I don't wish it on anyone," he added then.

But he had never suspended any event for this ailment.

In fact, in his eight years of pontificate, on very few occasions has he canceled his agenda for health reasons.

This year, due to a severe cold, he canceled his participation in the spiritual exercises that are held in a convent on the outskirts of Rome and which he usually attends with the Roman Curia before Holy Week.

A few years ago he postponed a visit to a Roman hospital due to food poisoning that also affected other priests with whom he lives in the Santa Marta residence, within the Vatican walls.

Last week, the pope, who just turned 84, underwent a test for coronavirus, which came back negative, after two of his close associates were infected.

One of them is the papal beggar, Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, who has been admitted with initial symptoms of pneumonia, and another is Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, who is quarantined at home.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Francisco has carried out several tests, all negative, to rule out a possible contagion.

The Pontiff, in addition to his age, is considered a population at risk for his lung problems, since when he was 21 years old and in the seminary in Buenos Aires he suffered a severe infection that forced the removal of the upper lobe of his right lung.

Last November, Bergoglio spoke about it for the first time since he was pope.

“They took a liter and a half of water from my lung, and there I was fighting to live.

Not even the doctors knew if he was going to survive, "he said then.

And he added: "I have experience of how coronavirus patients who struggle to breathe connected to a ventilator feel."

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