ASSOCIATED PRESS

Last updated: 10:09 am
July 17, 2009
Posted: 10:07 am
July 17, 2009

AOSTA, Italy — Doctors say Pope Benedict XVI will have to stay in a cast for a month after breaking his right wrist in a fall in his chalet while vacationing in the Italian Alps.

Pierluigi Berti, the director of the Umberto Parini hospital in Aosta, said doctors had successfully performed a 20-minute operation.

The surgery was performed under local anesthesia to reduce the fracture, a procedure to realign the broken bone fragments.

He left the hospital today smiling after undergoing surgery for injury.

A Vatican statement said the 82-year-old pope fell in his room in a nearby chalet overnight and despite the accident, celebrated Mass and had breakfast before going to the hospital.