Global Courant
Vatican says Pope Francis spent another good night in Rome hospital as he recovers from abdominal surgery
Candles depicting Pope Francis are left at the entrance of the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic in Rome Friday, June 9, 2023, where Francis is recovering after abdominal surgery on Wednesday. The Vatican says Pope Francis had a second good night in hospital, recovering from surgery to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in his abdominal wall. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
The associated press
ROME — Pope Francis has spent another good night in Rome hospital, where he is recovering from abdominal surgery, the Vatican said on Saturday.
Francis, 86, underwent surgery on Wednesday to repair a hernia in the abdominal wall and remove scar tissue that had formed in previous years after bowel surgery.
The Vatican said it would provide more details about the pope’s medical progress later in the day.
Meanwhile, thousands of people were expected in St. Peter’s Square for a late-afternoon gathering at the Vatican to promote brotherhood — a quality so dear to Francis that he wrote an encyclical in 2020 about its importance. In that document, the pope laid out his vision of a post-COVID world built on solidarity, brotherhood and care for the environment.
The crowd was expected to see a video message from the pope. It was not immediately clear whether Francis had left the message before his surgery or during the hospitalization.
While in the 10th-floor apartment reserved for papal use at Gemelli Polyclinic, he read the newspaper while sitting in an armchair, and spent time working and praying, the Vatican said.
No date has yet been set for his release from the hospital.
Shortly after the three-hour operation, his surgeon told reporters that the pope had not experienced any complications during the surgery or from the general anesthesia.
During the operation, the surgical team removed adhesions, a type of internal scarring that is not uncommon after previous operations. Two years earlier, Francis had part of his colon removed after a narrowing of part of the intestine. During Wednesday’s surgery, doctors also repaired a hernia that had formed over a previous scar, placing a prosthetic mesh to act as a support.
