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| Small drops of blood stain Pope Francis’s white cassock as he speaks with Cartagena’s Archbishop Jorge Enrique Jimenez Carvajal after knocking his face and eye on the popemobile in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. |
Pope Francis suffered a minor accident upon his arrival to Cartagena, the very last stop of his Sept. 6-11 visit to Colombia, but wasn’t deterred and kept on chugging through the day.
As he was riding the Popemobile trying to reach out to one of the tens of thousands waiting for him along the streets, the car moved abruptly, causing the pope to stumble. He hit the left side of his head against the metal bar that holds the glass roof of the vehicle, striking him in the face.
The blow was strong enough to draw blood, but Vatican spokesman Greg Burke, traveling with the pontiff, told journalists that he’s just fine.
Soon after the injury, which was televised live, Francis received a white handkerchief from one of the members of his security escort. The head of the security team, Italian layman Domenico Gianni, cleaned his eyebrow, signaling that’s where the blood, which stained his white cassock, originated.
Eventually, the motorcade stopped for the pope to receive treatment while he was making a stop at the home of a 77-year-old women who cooks and distributes meals to the homeless named Lorenza Pérez. When he got back in the car, he was sporting a Band-Aid on his eyebrow and a bruise was already visible on his cheekbone.
