BEING POPE CAN BE A PAIN IN THE...SCIATICA

In the past, the Vatican would issue a report that the Pope had a small case of the sniffles when , in fact, he had already been dead for three days! 

I guess the Holy See believed that somehow the laity needed to believe that holding the Office of Peter meant one was therefore immune from any form of human illness or infirmity.  To suggest otherwise would have been considered to be an act of disloyalty, if not heresy.

How times have changed.

Pope Francis is reported to be receiving injections to ease the pain of sciatica.  The Holy Father has been very open and forthright in revealing that he suffers from this nerve condition usually resulting from the herniation of a spinal disk.  He publicly admitted this in 2013, during an in-flight press conference on his return from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, following a World Youth Day celebration.

In response to a question about his health, Francis said, “The worst thing that happened - excuse me - was an attack of sciatica - really! - that I had the first month, because I was sitting in an armchair to do interviews and it hurt. Sciatica is very painful, very painful! I don’t wish it on anyone!”

The condition is not life-threatening, and there’s no indication it prevents the Holy Father from carrying out the responsibilities of his office.

There is a fascinating story about the Pope’s malady.  

It seems that, in 2007, journalist Massimo Franco reported for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires had visited a Roman physician named Valter Santilli for treatment of the disorder.

According to Franco’s report, Santilli said he had told the Cardinal that sciatica is a “prophetic disease.” 

When Cardinal Bergoglio asked why, Santilli reportedly said:  “Because in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, in Chapter 23, there’s the episode of Jacob’s struggle with the angel, who touched his sciatic nerve, on the hip joint, and that night, after his sciatic problem, the Lord changed his name to Israel.”

“You see,” Santilli continued, “after your sciatic problem, the Lord will change your name too.”
According to Famiglia Cristiana, Santilli adds now that Pope Francis called him shortly after his election in March 2013, after the two hadn’t seen one another for some time.

“One morning, my cell phone went off and the caller presented him like this: ‘Professor Santilli?’” he said.

“I replied, ‘Yes, who’s this?’”

“The response was the following: ‘I used to be called Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but the Lord has changed my name and now I’m called Pope Francis!’”

We wish the Holy Father swift comfort from his sciatic pain.  God bless the Pope each day and always!