Pope Francis reappeared this Friday (22.07.2022) in a wheelchair due to pain in his right knee, hours before starting the trip to Canada, where his public acts will be limited to one hour due to “his advanced age”. and the physical “limitations” announced by the bishops of this country.

The Sovereign Pontiff visited this Friday the image of the Virgin ‘Salus Populi Romani’ in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, a usual gesture before the start of his apostolic journeys.

In the image released by the Holy See Press Office, Francis – who turns 86 in December – is seen sitting on his back in the wheelchair.

silent prayer

“The Pope prayed for a few moments alone, in silence, seated in his wheelchair, asking for protection and support for what he described as a penitential pilgrimage”, which seeks “reconciliation between the Church and the Canadian indigenous peoples, victims in the past of the policies of assimilation perpetrated also by Catholic religious institutes,” Vatican News said.

On his second international trip in 2022, the pope is visiting the second largest country in the world after Russia and also one of the least populated. Francis is the second pontiff to visit Canada and will make the fourth apostolic trip by a pope to the country.

John Paul II toured Canada in September 1984, returned exclusively to meet with natives in 1987 at Fort Simpson, and also attended WYD in Toronto in 2002, where the largest crowd in the world gathered. history on this date: nearly 800,000 people.

jc (europa press/dpa, Vatican News)