Pope has plaster cast removed from wrist

Pope has plaster cast removed from wrist Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday had a plaster cast removed from his right-hand wrist which he broke during a fall while on vacation in July.

X-ray controls indicate the "fracture had consolidated," Benedict's personal doctor, Patrizio Polisca, was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

The July 16 accident has prevented the scholarly 82-year-old Benedict, who is right-handed, from indulging in his passions of writing and playing the piano.

Following his return from holiday in the Italian Alps at the end of July, Benedict has been staying at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo in the hills south of Rome.

Besides two pastoral visits in September - first to the central Italian town of Viterbo and later to the Czech Republic - Benedict plans to to remain in Castel Gandolfo until early October, before returning to Vatican City. (dpa)