The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, stumbled as he climbed to board a plane at John F. Kennedy Airport in the United States.
A video posted on YouTube showed the Pope stumbling as he struggled to climb the stairs. He held on to the rail of the stairs with his right hand while he clutched a bag with his left hand.
Pope Francis, who was dressed in his usual flowing white robe, was being watched from inside the plane by his aides with no one coming to his 'rescue'.
Pope Francis left New York City for Philadelphia on Saturday as several hundred people waved him goodbye at John F. Kennedy Airport.
The Pontiff, said to be suffering from sciatica and a bad knee, stumbled slightly as he walked up the stairs into the waiting American Airlines jet but “recovered quickly and waved to the crowd after he was seen limping.”
Before he departed New York, Francis met with nuns and Catholic leaders on the tarmac, where he was presented with white flowers to “represent the prayers of the people” and “the Blessed Mother,” Sister Mary, of the Redeemer of Brooklyn, told the Daily News.
The nuns also gave him homemade Argentinian cookies called alfajores and told him, “this is to make you feel at home,” to which he reportedly smiled.
“He was standing right in front of me and I realised he was real. It wasn’t easy to speak,” Sister Mary stated.
Explaining why the Pope did not go over to the people cheering him and holding Vatican flags, the Bishop of Brooklyn Diocese, Nicholas DiMarzio, said he “was running late.”