The Vatican press office reported that it will be operated in the early afternoon. This morning, as usual, he held his general audience with the faithful in Saint Peter’s Square. The intervention has been ordered due to “recurring, painful and worsening” occlusions. The precedent of 2021 and the trips planned for August that were confirmed a few days ago.
Vatican City () – Pope Francis is once again admitted to the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome for intestinal surgery under general anesthesia to be carried out this afternoon. After the general audience that he normally granted this morning in Saint Peter’s Square, with a reflection dedicated to the figure of Saint Teresa of Lisieux, he went to the clinic, where he had already been examined on an outpatient basis yesterday by the tomorrow.
“The Holy Father – says in the statement the director of the Vatican press office Matteo Bruni – will undergo a laparotomy and plastic surgery of the abdominal wall with prostheses in the early afternoon under general anesthesia. The operation, arranged in recent days by the medical team that cares for the Holy Father, has been necessary due to an incarcerated incisional hernia that is causing recurrent, painful and worsening subocclusive syndromes.” “The stay in the health center – The statement continues – it will last several days to allow the normal course of the postoperative period and full functional recovery”.
Already in July 2021, Pope Francis had undergone surgery -in the same Gemelli Polyclinic- for “a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon”. In some subsequent interviews, the same pontiff had spoken of difficulties related to anesthesia and that is why surgery had been ruled out due to knee pain. Last March he was again hospitalized for a few days in the same center due to a respiratory crisis.
Precisely in these days the Vatican has confirmed two important apostolic trips that await Pope Francis in the coming months: yesterday the program of the visit to Portugal from August 2 to 6 on the occasion of World Youth Day in Lisbon, during which a stop at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima is also planned. From August 31 to September 4 – as announced last Saturday – the pontiff must travel to Mongolia, while on September 23 he is expected in Marseilles for the third meeting of the Mediterranean bishops.
