Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Pope adjusting to wrist in plaster; can't write, so must use recorder

Reuters Wed Jul 22, 6:25 AM ET

Pope Benedict XVI sits with Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone (L) in the Italian Alps while on vacation in Les Combes July 22, 2009.
REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (ITALY RELIGION)
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» 07/22/2009 18:14
VATICAN

Pope doing well, in a good mood, but has to use a recorder because he can’t write

Father Lombardi describes Benedict XVI’s day Valle d’Aosta. He is “learning how to live with a wrist in plaster”. The Pope goes for daily walks and this Friday will travel to Aosta for Vespers.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Benedict XVI is doing “well” and is “in a good mood”. He is “learning how to live with a wrist in plaster and has been equipped with a small recorder to dictate his thoughts, as he is unable to use a pen with ease these days,” said Fr Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, as he described the Pope’s rest in Les Combes, in Italy’s Valle d’Aosta region. His inability to use the pen, which he prefers to do, is the Pope’s main concern after he broke his right wrist.
In his daily report, Father Lombardi said that Holy Father is “in regular communication by telephone with his brother”, with whom he has a close relationship. In a few days, his brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger, “will be at Castelgandolfo to spend the weeks of August together with the Pope, as has been customary in past years.”

The Pontiff also continues to make a short walk after lunch and in the late afternoon, enjoying the “great serenity and tranquillity” offered by this mountain location.

Today “Cardinal Bertone arrived by helicopter at 10.30 am from Romano Canavese,” father Lombardi said. “He will have an audience with the Pope and the two will lunch together. In the afternoon he will be back in Romano Canavese before returning to Rome tomorrow morning.”

In the Italian capital “Cardinal Bertone has been invited by the Speaker of the Italian Senate Schifani to hold a conference in the Senate on 28 July building on the Pope’s [latest] Encyclical.”
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See also:

From the Buffalo News, "Pope uses tape recorder as writing tough with cast"

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 1:55 PM