"I have to apologise for being late," the smiling 82-year old pontiff told crowds of faithful patiently waiting for him to appear at his study window overlooking Saint Peter's Square. "I was trapped in a lift for 25 minutes, there was a power outage and the lift stopped, but then the firemen came," he said.
"Let's give a round of applause to the fire service," he then said, prompting cheers and applause from the crowd. Italian television networks that live-stream the Angelus had been concerned that the unprecedented seven-minute delay might have been due to health reasons.