Reuters reports:
Pope Benedict apologized for being forgetful Wednesday — not once but twice.
At the end of his weekly general audience, the Pope had left the window overlooking the courtyard of his summer residence where thousands of people had listened to him deliver greetings in various languages.
He then returned and joked:
“I ask your forgiveness. I forgot the most important greeting — the one to Italian-speaking pilgrims,” he said, laughing.
The 78-year-old Pope then read the greeting in Italian, turned away and was leaving, but aides reminded him that he had forgotten something else. He returned to the window yet again.
“Today, I am forgetting the most important things. It appears that I am already partly in Cologne. They told me: ‘You forgot the most essential thing, the blessing’,” he said.
He then delivered his blessing and, still smiling and laughing about his two oversights, returned inside the summer residence.
It’s not the first time the Pope has forgotten something. But at least this time, he actually apologized.
