Pope Francis, 86, underwent general anesthesia in Rome on Wednesday for a abdominal fracture amid regular concerns about the pope’s health.
The Argentine Jesuit’s hearings have been canceled until June 18 “as a precaution,” we learned from the Holy See’s press service, while the Vatican says the intervention will result in “several days” of hospitalization.
After leading the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, as he does every week, and welcoming the faithful aboard his “popemobile,” the Pope was taken under police escort to Gemelli Hospital in north-western Italy late in the morning, according to AFP.
The surgical procedure, consisting of a laparotomy (abdominal incision) and the fitting of a prosthesis, was still ongoing as of Wednesday afternoon.
“The operation, organized in recent days by the Holy Father’s medical team, became necessary due to an abdominal hernia that causes recurrent, painful and worsening subocclusive syndromes,” reads a statement from the director of the Holy Father’s press service See , Matteo Bruni.
The Secretary of State and No. 2 of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, clarified that this operation is not “a vacancy” or “a temporary replacement of the Pope in the exercise of his functions”.
After the operation, his duty will resume “even if it’s done from a hospital bed,” he told reporters. “In the case of urgent files, they will be taken to him at Gemelli Hospital.”
On Tuesday, the head of the Catholic Church had already gone to Gemelli Hospital for medical “examinations”, but the Vatican did not give any information on why.
In July 2021, the Bishop of Rome had already been in this hospital for ten days for a left colectomy, in which part of the colon was removed.
He said he was experiencing “after-effects” from the anesthetic, leading him to rule out a knee operation he had been suffering from for many months.
In January, he had re-discovered that he had diverticulitis, an inflammation of the diverticula, hernias, or pockets that form on the walls of the digestive system.
Elected in 2013, François, who underwent lung surgery aged 21 and suffers from hip and knee problems, is regularly forced to cut his schedule due to health issues, fueling concern and speculation.
He had already returned to the Gemelli hospital at the end of March with a respiratory infection, which had required a three-day course of antibiotics.
Two weeks ago, in an interview with the Spanish-language television Telemundo, he confided that this “pneumonia” had been treated “in a timely manner”. “If we had waited a few more hours it would have been a lot worse,” he admitted.
After his operation on Wednesday, the pope was again to stay on the tenth floor of the Gemelli Hospital reserved for popes, in the same room that John Paul II had already used on several occasions.
Jorge Bergoglio also suffers from chronic knee pain, which forces him to move around in a wheelchair or with a cane.