VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis tripped while entering the Vatican auditorium for an audience Saturday after the handle of his walking stick snapped, but he avoided falling.
\nThe 88-year-old pope often has to use a wheelchair or a cane because of bad knees and has fallen twice in the past two months.
\nAfter Saturday\u2019s slight stumble, two aides helped him to his chair on the stage and the audience proceeded without incident. After he recovered someone in the audience shouted \u201cViva il Papa\u201d and the audience applauded.
\nEarlier in January, Francis fell and hurt his right arm. It wasn\u2019t broken, but a sling was put on as a precaution.
\nOn Dec. 7, the pope whacked his chin on his nightstand in an apparent fall that resulted in a bad bruise.
\nThe pontiff has long battled health problems including long bouts of bronchitis. He uses a walker or cane when moving around his apartment in the Vatican\u2019s Santa Marta hotel.
\nSpeculation about Francis\u2019 health is a constant in Vatican circles, especially after Pope Benedict XVI broke 600 years of tradition and resigned from the papacy in 2013. Benedict\u2019s aides have attributed the decision to a nighttime fall that he suffered during a 2012 trip to Mexico, after which he determined he couldn\u2019t keep up with the globe-trotting demands of the papacy.
\nFrancis has said that he has no plans to resign anytime soon, even if Benedict \u201copened the door\u201d to the possibility. In his autobiography \u201cHope\u201d released this month, Francis said that he hadn\u2019t considered resigning even when he had major intestinal surgery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis tripped while entering the Vatican auditorium for an audience Saturday after the handle of his walking stick snapped, but he avoided falling. The 88-year-old pope often has to use a wheelchair or a cane because of bad knees and has fallen twice in the past two months. After Saturday\u2019s slight stumble, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-458901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n