Pope Francis was forced to skip evening prayers during his trip to South Korea because he was behind schedule – to the disappointment but also amusement of the 5,000 nuns he had flown to visit.<br /><br />A busy day had seen him celebrate Mass before hundreds of thousands of people in Seoul – before his flight 90 kilometres away to the community of Kkottognae that cares for disabled people.<br /><br />“Good evening. There’s a little problem,” Pope Francis told the crowd. “We cannot pray the vespers together because we have a problem with the timing of the takeoff of my helicopter, and if we don’t take off within a certain time, there’s a danger we might smash into a mountain.”<br /><br />Translated into Korean, the Pope’s apologies went down well as the nuns roared with laughter.<br /><br />The Vatican’s spokesman explained that Francis had taken extra time to greet and bless around 60 disabled children and elderly residents.<br /><br />Earlier he had beatified 124 of South Korea’s first Catholics at the open-air Mass in Seoul.
