Rome (Reuters) – Pope Benedict XVI walked on Friday in public helped by a cane for the first time at the start of his trip to Latin America, in a sign of its growing weakness physics.

the Pontiff, who will be 85 years old next, month walked toward a plane at the airport Fiumicino in Rome with a cane, told reporters from the Vatican that it was accompanied on his visit to Mexico and Cuba.

last year the Pope began using a mobile platform in order to avoid too much walking in the altar of the Basilica of San Pedro.

the Vatican said that the Catholic leader was using the platform to avoid fatigue and that there were no major concerns about your health in general.

Benedicto XVI intends to rest for 24 hours after his arrival to Mexico to recover from the Jet lag, In contrast to the busy schedule of his predecessor Juan Pablo II until his health deteriorate in the last years of his life.

the German Pope was 78 years old when he was elected for the maximum position of the Catholic Church and has decided to keep an agenda less exhausting to maintain your health, while John Paul II was 58 at the start of his papacy.

John Paul II, who died in 2005, made 19 trips to Latin America, a region of the last of them overwhelmingly Catholic majority when he was 82 years.

the less active Benedicto XVI, in April enters the eighth year of his pontificate, made his second trip to Latin America and the first to Spanish speaking countries of the region after visiting Brazil in 2007.

(report of Philip Pullella, written by Barry Moody. Bewerkt door Marion Giraldo in het Spaans)