In Canada, Pope Francis’ “false pilgrimage” reveals his deteriorating health

Seated in a white chair placed far behind the altar, Pope Francis would have been difficult to see without cameras for the colossal crowd of 1,500 faithful gathered in the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beuvre on Thursday, July 28. Around Quebec. The head of the Catholic Church’s visit to Canada, July 25 to 30, will be the first time an Argentine pope will not be able to celebrate the Eucharist.

François had to content himself with presiding and preaching, unable to take more than a few steps due to severe knee pains that had forced him to use a wheelchair since the beginning of May. It was the same on Tuesday at Edmonton’s (Alberta) Commonwealth Stadium, where 50,000 Catholics turned out for him. In Quebec, he could not walk up the aisle to the choir, before the ceremony with the other celebrants, a moment usually favored by the faithful, so that he could be approached.

This first trip, where his knee pain prevented him from walking, was a test of his fitness. Since he was forced to cancel his trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan on June 10, three weeks before his scheduled departure, some observers are speculating that he will soon withdraw due to health reasons. To cut down on rumours, Francois gave a flurry of interviews in July.

Resigning soon? “It never crossed my mind. Not now.”It’s an option though, he told Reuters news agency. “Now, I don’t think God is asking me. When the Lord asks me, yes”, He added for Mexican television. He said he was suffering from A “small fracture” Treated the knee, laser and magnetic therapy, and he realized “very little” Through this pathology.

Sorrow and Repentance of the Church

In the first weeks, he was reluctant to show himself in his wheelchair, which he managed to push himself. During the trip, he twice changed the Popemobile – an open car he used to cover a certain distance while being close to the crowd – as originally planned. On Monday, at Masquais, and then on Tuesday, at Lac Sainte-Anne, it allowed him to go toe-to-toe with the leaders. “adults” First Nations, pushed by his butler.

In the end, it was not well suited to these meetings, which were intended to express the Church’s sorrow and repentance and its closeness with the various tribal communities affected by the treatment of their 150,000 children in boarding schools run by the congregations. Catholics.

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