Francis, who will turn 88 this month, seemed in good shape as he presided over a Mass where 21 church dignitaries from 17 countries were promoted to the Corps of Cardinals, the elite group that will one day choose his successor. . A purple blotch could be seen on the right side of the pope’s face, on the lower part of his chin and on top of his neck. The Vatican press office said it would not comment on what happened, and sources in the Vatican, as reported by the French news agency AFP, state that the pope fell on Friday morning while getting out of bed.
Francis, who has been pope since 2013, has occasionally had health problems in recent years, and now uses a wheelchair to relieve pain in his knees and lower back.
Apart from the Pope, cardinals are the highest officials of the Catholic Church, which has 1.4 billion believers. After the death or resignation of the pope, cardinals under the age of 80 have the task of entering a conclave and electing a new pope.
Francis has now installed about 80 percent of the prelates who will elect the next pope, increasing the likelihood that the next pope will share a vision of the Church that is more inclusive and involved in the wider world.
MORE GEOGRAPHICAL DIVERSITY
Francis, who is from Argentina and the first pope from one of the Americas, was focused on strengthening the geographic diversity among the cardinals.
At least 67 countries now have cardinals who can vote in the conclave, according to Vatican statistics, compared with fewer than 50 when Francis was elected.
The latest appointments come from countries such as Peru, Argentina, Japan, the Philippines, Algeria, India and Serbia.
In Saturday’s homily, Francis said the new cardinals “come from different backgrounds and cultures,” and called on them to be “witnesses of brotherhood, masters of communion and builders of unity.”
Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo, one of the new cardinals, praised the pope’s efforts to increase geographic diversity.
“Having cardinals from all parts of the world really reflects the universality of the Church,” Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, told Reuters.
Italy is still the country with the most cardinals, 17 of whom are under 80 years old. Four were named on Saturday, including the archbishops of Turin, Italy’s business center, and Naples, the country’s third-largest city.
Among the new cardinals, one serves as the archbishop of the Tehran-Isfahan archdiocese in Iran. The other is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic working in Australia.