Pope Francis appeared this afternoon at St. Peter's for the ancient rite of the consistory with a noticeable and extensive bluish bruise just below his chin. The Vatican cameras, which focused on him during the mass with the new cardinals, carefully avoided filming him from the front. Nothing concerning, and from the Vatican, it is reported that it was a trivial yet minor domestic accident. Probably a fall, fortunately without consequences. "It is the result of the fact that the pontiff hit his chin on the bedside table yesterday morning," said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. This morning, during the work meetings scheduled in the apostolic palace, Francis carried out all the appointments without any problems, even reading long speeches and making jokes. He also had a tiny bandage on his face.
The extent of the purplish bruise on the chin and the area below the chin was obviously a subject of great curiosity, also because it stood out against the white of the papal garments. Impossible not to notice the contrast.
To the 21 new cardinals during the homily, Bergoglio recommended always listening to the voice of the heart, prioritizing it, and following the "same path as Jesus. This is what we need." It is therefore about returning to the essentials: "Walking the path of Jesus means first of all returning to Him and putting Him at the center of everything. In spiritual life as in pastoral life, we sometimes risk focusing on the outlines, forgetting the essentials. Too often, secondary things take the place of what is necessary, appearances prevail over what really matters, we dive into activities we consider urgent without reaching the heart. Instead, we always need to return to the center, to recover the foundation, to strip ourselves of what is superfluous to clothe ourselves with Christ," said the Pope with a firm voice.
Pope Francis jokes about his health: "I am like an aged motorcycle and it doesn't work well"
Before the mass, the only non-elector new cardinal, Angelo Acerbi, a former nuncio now ninety-nine years old recently recovered from a hospitalization for an illness, spoke. It is up to him to address the pontiff with greetings: "The human family is shaken and disfigured by inequalities, wars, and poverty in many parts of the world. We would like to look to the future with hope and see a world finally at peace. We are sure, Holy Father, that the memory of your incessant appeals will always remain alive."
The new Italian cardinals are five. Besides Acerbi, there is Domenico Battaglia of Naples, the vicar of Rome, Baldassare Reina, the archbishop of Turin, Roberto Repole, and the undersecretary for the migrants' section of the dicastery for Integral Human Development, Father Fabio Baggio. In total, the presence of Italian voting cardinals rises to 19 (including the patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa and the ordinary of Mongolia Giorgio Marengo, who have been registered in the Asian area). The Italians are still the largest group of electors but have been effectively halved over the past ten years. Among the novelties of the new cardinals is the archbishop of Belgrade Ladislav Nemet, the Lithuanian Rolandas Makrickas (52 years old) since March archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore, Iran with the archbishop of Tehran, Dominique Joseph Mathieu (of Belgian origin). Then there is Japan, Chile, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Brazil, Canada, and Australia.
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