Pope Benedict XVI will not attend an event in Mexico City next year because the city sits too high above sea level for someone his age, a cardinal said today.
The pope had been invited to attend the World Family Day in January.
But Cardinal Ennio Antonelli of the Pontifical Council for the Family said Thursday that the 81-year-old pope would not take part.
"The pope is in good health, but he's no longer a young man," Antonelli was quoted as saying by the ANSA and Apcom news agencies. "The problem, aside from the travel distance, is the altitude of Mexico City."
Mexico City is more than 2200 metres above sea level. Antonelli said the decision was made as a precaution, and said organizers were thinking of ways for the pope to participate, possibly by videoconference.
Benedict's predecessor, the globe-trotting Pope John Paul II, was 82 and frail when he last traveled to Mexico City in July 2002.
Benedict has made 10 foreign pilgrimages since assuming the papacy in 2005, including a visit to France that ended this week.
A flight to Australia in July lasting more than 20 hours was the longest of his papacy, and aides scheduled a three-day rest after it.
