The Pope's Tape Recorder
Why did the Pope fall? The Pope’s spokesman told me today that “any illness has been ruled out, and the fall has rightly been described as ‘accidental.’ Whether he stumbled or slipped are particulars I cannot go into.”
In an earlier posting I mentioned that Benedict likes to dictate his thoughts into a recorder — I think it’s a holdover from his days as a university professor.
Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s spokesman, said today the Pope “has now been provided with a tape recorder to record his reflections,” but added that he did not yet know “how much he will use it in the coming days.”
As this CNS article explains, the Holy Father has been given a laptop to use but he is not a great computer fan. Benedict XVI “is not used to writing with a PC; he isn’t very technological,” Father Lombardi said, adding that “especially in creative work he prefers to use a pen.”
I touched base with Father Lombardi about the causes of the Holy Father’s fall, as some have speculated he might have fainted, in which case it might point to something more serious.
The CNS article also gives a full update on the Holy Father’s health and his plans for the rest of his vacation in Les Combes, Italy, which ends July 29.
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
