For the second time in less than 6 weeks, Pope Francis has been injured in a fall at his Vatican residence

Rome — Pope Francis injured his right arm in a fall Thursday, leaving his jaw badly bruised after another public fall just weeks after the Vatican. A Vatican spokesman said that Francis did not break his arm, but that he was wearing a sling as a precaution.

On December 7, Pope apparently fell and hit his chin on a nightstand, resulting in a nasty bruise.

There is an 88-year-old Pope struggled with health problems including long bronchitis attackshe often has to use a wheelchair because of bad knees. He uses a walker or cane to get around his apartment in the Vatican’s Hotel Santa Marta.

The fall also occurred at Santa Marta on Thursday, and the pope was later seen in the audience with his right arm in a sling, the Vatican said.

“This morning, Pope Francis suffered a contusion on his right arm after falling in the House of Santa Marta. His arm was immobilized as a precaution,” the report said.

Speculation about Francis’ health is constant in Vatican circles, especially after that Pope Benedict XVI He broke with 600 years of tradition and resigned from the papacy in 2013. Benedict’s aides attributed the decision to a nightfall he suffered during a trip to Mexico in 2012, after which he decided he could not meet the demands of traveling the world. the papacy.

However, Francis said he has no intention of resigning anytime soon, even if Benedict “opens the door”. In his autobiography, Hope, released this week, Francis said that even when he underwent major bowel surgery, he never considered quitting.

Francis had part of one of his lungs removed after a severe bout of pneumonia when he was young in Argentina.