“Due to painful sciatica, the celebrations tonight and tomorrow morning at the Altar of the Chair in the Vatican Basilica will not be presided over by the Holy Father Francis,” reported the Vatican press office on December 31.
“Tomorrow, January 1, 2021, Pope Francis will still lead the recitation of the Angelus from the library of the Apostolic Palace, as planned,” according to the director of the press office, Matteo Bruni.
The Holy Father sometimes walks with a quite notable limp as he has long suffered from sciatica, a condition usually caused by compression of a nerve in the back.
Sciatica usually causes intense pain in the back and one leg, and already in the first year of his papacy, the pope spoke about it giving him trouble. “Sciatica is very painful, very painful! I don’t wish it on anyone!” he said, returning from the World Youth Day in Brazil.
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And today we celebrate...