Pope struck by sciatica, skip Te Deum and mass tomorrow

Published on: 12/31/2020 12:14 PM

“Due to a painful sciatica, the celebrations this afternoon and tomorrow morning at the Altar of the Chair of the Vatican Basilica will not be presided over by the Holy Father Francis.” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni reports this.

“First Vespers and Te Deum tonight, December 31, 2020, will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals, while Mass will be presided over by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State. Tomorrow, the Pope Francis in any case will direct the recitation of the Angelus in the Library of the Apostolic Palace, as expected ”, explains Bruni.

Greetings from the Papaboys reach the Pope. Bergoglio has suffered from sciatica for some time and periodically, on the advice of his doctor, undergoes massages and injections to relieve pain in his leg. In 2007, when the then Cardinal and Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio arrived in Rome to participate in a synod of bishops, he went to visit the Roman physiatrist at La Sapienza Valter Santilli University, specialized in rehabilitation.

It was Santilli himself who told how it went with the illustrious patient: “During the visit, in which the cardinal stood out for both sympathy and cordiality and simplicity, it occurred to me to express myself as follows:” Your Eminence, you know that sciatica is a prophetic disease? “” Why? “- Cardinal Bergoglio asked. And I replied:” Because in the Old Testament book of Genesis, in chapter 32, where the episode of Jacob’s fight with the Angelo, the latter touched him on the sciatic nerve and on the hip joint, and that night, after the sciatica, the Lord changed his name to Jacob in Israel. You will see – Santilli said to the future Pope – after his sciatica the Lord will also change his name ”.