Vatican City: Pope Francis said Sunday he was late to his weekly Angelus prayer because he had been stuck in a Vatican elevator and had to be freed by firemen.
“I have to apologise for being late,” the smiling 82-year old pontiff told crowds of faithful patiently waiting for him to appear at his study window overlooking Saint Peter’s Square here. “I was trapped in a lift for 25 minutes, there was a power outage but then the firemen came,” Pope Francis told the gathering. “Let’s give a round of applause to the fire service,” he added, prompting cheers and applause from the crowd.
Italian television networks that live-stream the Angelus had been concerned that the unprecedented seven-minute delay might have been due to health reasons.
Pope Francis seems to have unlimited energy despite his age. But he lost part of a lung in his youth, and the occasional grimace bears witness to the sciatic pain that is a near-constant companion.
It was believed to be the first time the Vatican’s head of state, who leads the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, has got stuck in a lift.
Later in the day Pope Francis urged governments to show the ‘political will’ to take drastic steps to deal with climate change. He said the time has come to abandon dependence on fossil fuels.
Pope Francis issued the appeal in a message Sunday, the start of several weeks of prayer by Christians to raise political awareness about pollution and exploitation of natural resources.
The Pope said he also wants people to reflect on ‘thoughtful and harmful’ daily decisions about consumption and ‘self-centered’ attitudes toward Creation.
Francis said that at the UN Climate Action Summit later this month ‘governments will have the responsibility of showing the political will to take drastic measures’ to achieve as quickly as possible zero net greenhouse gas emissions and to limit average the average increase in global temperature in line with the Paris climate accords.
Agencies
