ROME – Doctors have prescribed a wheelchair, cane and physiotherapy to help heal Pope Francis’ bad knee. He has other ideas.
According to a viral video of the pope at the end of a recent audience, Francis joked that what he really needed for the pain was tequila.
Francis was riding in his father’s car in St. Peter’s Square when he stopped near a group of Mexican seminarians from the Legion of Christ who asked him in his native Spanish how his knee was. After he replied that she was “capricious”, they told Francis that they admired his ability to smile despite the pain and that he was an example for future priests like them.
“Do you know what I need for my knee?” Francis asked them from the papal car. “Some tequila.” The seminarians laughed and promised to deliver a bottle to the Santa Marta Hotel, where Francis lives.
The 85-year-old Argentine pope has been suffering from strained ligaments in his right knee for months and, according to a doctor’s prescription, recently used a wheelchair and a cane to move so he can let it heal.
Restrictions on his mobility have sparked a predictable range of media speculation about his health and a future conclave, but a close aide recently said the pope is “better than ever” and undergoes two hours of physiotherapy a day.
“He is in very good health and with the same clear reflection as always,” tweeted the Bishop of La Plata, Argentina, Victor Manuel Fernandez, on May 14 after seeing the pope. “There is (is) a problem in one of his knees, but there are more than two hours of rehabilitation every day, which gives results. For everything else, he is better than ever.”
Francis recently canceled a planned two-day trip to Lebanon next month, citing a knee problem, but the Vatican has confirmed it will travel to Congo and South Sudan, as well as Canada in July.
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