Les Combes (Italy): Pope Benedict XVI spent a
calm night after breaking his wrist in his Alpine vacation
chalet and is learning to cope with the cast on his right arm,
the Vatican said on Saturday.
Benedict, 82, will stick to his schedule of public
appearances, including the traditional Angelus prayer on
Sunday, Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi said in a
statement.
Benedict had surgery at the hospital of the nearby town
of Aosta yesterday to set his right wrist, fractured when he
fell overnight in a chalet where he staying in the mountain
hamlet of Les Combes, near the French border.
The right-handed pope will have to keep the cast for a
month. Lombardi said the toughest part for Benedict was giving
up writing by hand, which he intended to do often during his
vacation.
"He is learning to live with a blocked wrist, this is not
very easy," Lombardi told AP Television News. "The pope cannot
write, do handwriting as he desired in these days. But for the
other aspects, the day is normal."
Another pleasure that he is sure to be denied in the near
term is playing the piano. The pope is a classical music lover
and enjoys playing while on vacation.
Bureau Report
