EDs: APNewsNow.

VATICAN CITY (AP) A papal spokesman says doctors have checked Pope Benedict XVI's broken wrist and are pleased with how the injury is healing.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement that doctors from Aosta hospital as well as Vatican doctors carried out medical and radiological exams on the pontiff at his vacation chalet in the Italian Alps near the French border.

The 82-year-old pope had surgery at the hospital on July 17 on his right wrist, fractured in a fall in the chalet near Aosta.

Lombardi said doctors on Saturday removed the cast and put on a new one.

He said the half-hour checkup yielded "excellent results," and described the healing process as "good." Benedict will celebrate Mass Sunday for the public on the meadow outside the chalet.

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