Le Combes di Introd, Italy – Pope Benedict XVI appeared in high spirits Wednesday, as he left the Italian Alps where his two-week holiday was marred by a fall in which he broke his wrist.
Ahead of his return to Rome, the 82-year-old pontiff joked about his injury with reporters as he said goodbye to well-wishers in the northwestern town of Le Combes di Introd.
“This year you had little to write about,” the German-born Benedict said, then raising his plastered right-hand wrist, he added: “This was more than enough of an event, we didn’t need anything else.”
Benedict, also noted how his “guardian angel,” perhaps acting on “superior orders,” had failed to prevent the July 16 night-time bedroom fall in which he suffered the fracture.
“Maybe the Lord wanted to teach me to be more patient, and to give me some time for prayer and meditation,” he said.
According to the Vatican, the plaster cast on the pontiff’s wrist is set to remain in place for another 20 days.
Vatican and medical officials have described the fracture as “minor,” and have said the pontiff is in good health.
Later Wednesday Benedict was scheduled to travel from Rome to his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, a town situated in the hills south of the Italian capital.
The Vatican said a delegation of some 100 swimmers currently participating in the 2009 World Swimming Championships in Rome, would visit the pontiff on Saturday.
Besides two pastoral visits in September – first to the central Italian town of Viterbo and later to the Czech Republic – Benedict plans to to remain in Castel Gandolfo until early October, before returning to Vatican City. (dpa)
