Pope Francis, who is being slowed by age and ailments, is not afraid to use a wheelchair, as any normal person would do
Pope Francis, seated in a wheelchair following knee treatment, blesses a child as he greets Swiss Guards and their family within the swearing-in ceremony of new recruits of the pontifical Swiss Guard in the Vatican on May 6. (Photoi: Vatican Media/AFP)
Not long after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became bishop of Rome in March 2013, observers began saying his pontificate marked a "return to normalcy".
It was probably not immediately evident to his fellow cardinals that this Argentine Jesuit, a son of Italian immigrants, was poised to do more than just clean up the Vatican, as they had asked him to do.
They must have figured out rather quickly that the pope who took the name Francis was also bent on demythologizing and reforming the papacy.
He began doing so through a number of symbolic acts and gestures that were aimed at showing members of the Roman Curia and Catholics around the world that being the Roman Pontiff did not make him holier and closer to God than other believers or more of a bishop than other men in the episcopate.
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