Pope Francis goes to Rome hospital for intestinal surgery
The Vatican said Pope Francis went to a hospital in Rome on Sunday for scheduled surgery for stenosis or restriction of the large intestine. The brief announcement from the Holy See’s press office did not say when the surgery would be performed, but said an announcement would be made when the surgery was complete.
Just three hours earlier, Francis had greeted the public in St Peter’s Square in keeping with Sunday tradition and told them he would visit Hungary and Slovakia in September.
The Vatican said Pope had been diagnosed with “symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon,” a reference to narrowing in the large intestine.
A week earlier, Francis, 84, had used the same appearance to ask the public to pray for himself, pointing to a planned surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic.
“I ask you to pray for the Pope, pray in a special way,” Francis had asked believers in the square in the presence of 27 June. “The Pope needs your prayers,” he said, thanking him, “I know you will.”
Francis is generally in good health, but as a young man he had part of one lung removed. He also suffers from sciatica, sometimes experiencing painful bouts of a condition that involves a nerve affecting the lower back and legs. This has forced him to skip scheduled appearances several times.
The pope had a particularly sought-after set of appointments last week, including a Catholic feast day on Tuesday to honor Saints Peter and Paul and one to preside over a special prayer service for Lebanon later in the week. Mass celebrations were included. On 28 June, he also had a long private audience with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Vatican. During all those engagements, Francis appeared to be in good spirits.
Gemelli’s doctors have previously operated on papal patients, including Pope John Paul II, who had a benign tumor in the colon that was removed in 1992.
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