Global Courant
According to doctors’ advice, Pope Francis skipped his usual public blessing on Sunday afternoon as he recovers from abdominal surgery, but he followed the mass on TV from a hospital in Rome and prayed privately, the Vatican said.
Francis also ate lunch in his 10th-floor hospital apartment with doctors, nurses, other medical staff and members of his Vatican security service, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a written statement.
The surgeon who performed the three-hour operation on Wednesday to repair an abdominal hernia and remove painful internal scars from previous surgeries said the 86-year-old pope had started on a semi-liquid diet.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri also told reporters that medical staff had made it clear to Francis that they were concerned that even if the pope gave the noon public blessing and salutation from a balcony down the hall from his hospital room, he might be overthinking it. strain and a prosthesis would tear. mesh that was inserted as part of the hernia repair.
If that happened, another operation would be necessary. The public blessing usually lasts about 15 minutes.
Physical therapy to help with breathing
Citing the assessment of medical staff, Bruni said on Sunday that the pope’s recovery was normal. “He did respiratory physiotherapy and stayed mobile,” he said.
As a young man, Francis had part of a lung removed due to an infection, so his lung function is being closely monitored. In March, the pope spent a few days in the same hospital receiving intravenous antibiotic treatment for bronchitis that had given Francis a fever.
Faithfully pray the Angelus prayer outside the windows of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Sunday as the Pope recovers from surgery inside. (Andrew Medichini/The Associated Press)
On Sunday morning, the pope “watched the Holy Mass live on television and received the Eucharistic celebration,” Bruni said.
Francis then recited the traditional afternoon prayer known as the Angelus in a small chapel of the papal apartment that Gemelli Hospital keeps ready for when popes need hospitalization.
No date has been announced for Francis’ return to the Vatican. But Alfieri revealed on Saturday that medical staff were encouraging him to spend the entire week in hospital so that he would be better able to handle his heavy workload once he went home.
Two years ago, when Francis underwent surgery to remove part of his narrowed colon, the pope, flanked by some hospitalized children, gave a Sunday blessing from a 10th-floor hospital balcony seven days after that procedure. He was discharged 10 days after surgery.
