Pope Benedict XVI began using a wheeled platform yesterday to navigate the long aisle of St Peter’s Basilica, adopting the device employed by his ailing predecessor to reduce fatigue.

As the platform, pushed forward by aides, glided up the marble floor towards the main altar, Pope Benedict gripped his pastoral staff with one hand and the device’s support bar with the other.

The 84-year-old pontiff occasionally took his hand off the bar to wave to thousands of faithful flanking his route in the basilica, where he celebrated a Mass dedicated to encouraging missionary zeal.

Pope Benedict walked steadily around the central altar and up and down its steps, but appeared less sprightly than he usually does. But Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi insisted the platform was not being used for any “medical reason”.

“The sole purpose is to ease the effort of the Holy Father, to reduce the fatigue,” Rev Lombardi told journalists. No longer walking down the basilica aisle when Pope Benedict arrives and leaves for ceremonies also makes the Pontiff “more protected, because the Pope stays in his path in the centre” of the aisle, Rev. Lombardi said.

Previously, Pope Benedict used to occasionally take a few steps to either side to greet admirers.

During the solemn entrance procession in the basilica for Christmas Eve Mass in 2009, a woman with psychiatric problems scrambled over the barrier and in her eagerness to greet Pope Benedict, knocked him down. Pope Benedict was unhurt, but an elderly cardinal in front of him toppled over and suffered a fracture. Using the platform during basilica processions means the Pontiff will no longer be able to reach over and shake hands or kiss babies, but since the platform is higher the faithful will have a better view of him.

Pope Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, started using the gold-coloured platform in his final years of the papacy, when Parkinson’s disease made it increasingly difficult for him to walk steadily or without fatigue.

The Mass today marked the Vatican’s efforts to encourage what it calls a “new evangelisation”. The missionary zeal is aimed both at achieving conversions in parts of the world where the Catholic Church is growing, including Asia and Africa, and at shoring up flagging faith in traditional Christian areas, including Western Europe.

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