"Due to acute knee pain, for which the doctor has prescribed a period of greater rest for the leg, Pope Francis will not be able to go to Florence on Sunday 27 February, nor preside over the celebrations on Ash Wednesday on 2 March".
This was announced by the Vatican press office.
The "knee pain", or more simply the pain in the knee, has been accused by the Pope for several weeks.
In the general audience of last January 26, in which he visibly walked with difficulty, he confided to the faithful present in the Paul VI Hall that he had a knee problem.
"Today I will not be able to go among you to greet you because I have a problem in my right leg: a ligament in my knee is inflamed but I will go down and greet you there and you will come by to greet me. It is a passing thing".
Then she joked: "They say this only comes to old people and I don't know why it got to me."
The next day, January 27, at the beginning of his speech in the audience at the Roman Rota on the occasion of the inauguration of the Judicial Year, he apologized for not being able to pronounce it standing: "I apologize, first of all, but I have this problem to the knee: it hurts me to be on my feet and I will do the same in the end to say hello, "he said.
A similar situation on January 28, with the Pope who continued to be afflicted by the pain in his knee which already made it difficult for him to walk and stand.
"I still have this pain in my knee, it makes me suffer a little, I ask you not to be offended if I greet you sitting down", he said at the end of the hearing with the international consortium of Catholic media engaged in the fight against fake news.
Also on February 3, in greeting the managers and staff of the Public Security Inspectorate at the Vatican, he recalled his knee problem: "I will try to greet you all standing up but do not be offended if at some point I have to greet you seated".
Again on February 18, in the audience at the plenary session of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, he showed the same symptoms.
"I apologize" for the fact "of speaking sitting but still the knee is not completely healed", he told the participants.
Evidently the pain has now worsened to the point of forcing the Pope to 'forfeit' the awaited visit to Florence, where he should have closed the meeting of the bishops and mayors of the Mediterranean, with a speech in Palazzo Vecchio and a mass in the Basilica of Santa Croce, also meeting the president of the republic Sergio Mattarella.
The same will happen for the Ash Wednesday appointment on the Aventine, where the Pope was supposed to preside over the traditional celebration in the form of the Roman "Stations", with the procession from the church of Sant'Anselmo to the Basilica of Santa Sabina and the mass with the rite of blessing and imposition of ashes.
Earlier last year, it was sciatica that prevented Francis from presiding over some of the liturgies of the Christmas cycle in St. Peter's Basilica.
