JOIN USPope Benedict XVI underwent an operation in hospital on Friday after falling and breaking his right wrist while on holiday in northern Italy, the Vatican said.
It was the first health scare for the 82-year-old pope since he became head of the Roman Catholic Church in April 2005. But Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said there was “no cause for concern.”
The pontiff fell during the night at a chalet where he is staying in the mountain resort of Val d’Aosta, the Vatican said in a communique.
Doctors used local anaesthetic on Benedict to operate on the wrist, Italian media reported.
Benedict, who is right-handed and an avid pianist in his leisure time, began a two-week holiday in the hamlet of Les Combes d’Introd on Monday. The pope had a piano sent to the chalet, media reports said.
Vatican sources said the pope slipped and fell but was not ill and had not fainted.