September 2, 2019

Andrew Campbell 

Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, which the papacy has begun since March of 2013. Each Sunday at noon the Holy Father gives a weekly Angelus address at Peter's Square, a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica with its impressive dome, and delivers his prayer before a huge crowd of audience. The prayer is also broadcast live by local television networks in Italy.

By surprise, the 82-year-old Pope Francis was late in his prayer on September 1. The unprecedented delay has once been stirred up the concern on the TV network for suspicion in his health reason.

The smiling pontiff showed up for his address about 10 minutes late and explained being stuck 25 minutes in an elevator in the Vatican. Pope Francis also asked the audience to applaud the firefighters who have rescued him from the power-outage elevator. In his Angelus address, the Pope mentioned to the crowd that there would be 10 newly appointed Roman Catholic cardinals next month.

Photo:Webshot.