(AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI travels to Benin on Friday for a physically demanding three-day trip amid concerns among observers that the pontiff’s busy workload may be damaging his health.
Since October, the 84-year-old pope has twice had to make use of a mobile platform to move in St Peter’s Basilica during mass in order to spare him unnecessary effort, the same device used by his predecessor John Paul II.
Plans to visit Mexico City on a planned trip to Mexico next year have also been scrapped as too risky, because the city is at high altitude and the German pontiff had a history of heart problems even before becoming pope.
Benedict’s doctor, Patrizio Polisca, who accompanies him on all his trips and always contacts medical officials in the country, is believed to have already alerted Beninese authorities.
Rumours that Benedict may not be in the best of health were fed by his own comments last year that he would not hesitate to resign if he felt himself no longer able to run the Catholic Church.
As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he suffered a stroke while vacationing in the Alps which briefly affected his eyesight and weakened his heart.
The Vatican said he suffered another mild stroke in May 2005 after being elected pope in April.
He fell and broke his wrist in 2009 during another holiday in the Alps.
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