Pope Francis, 86, began a convalescence of several days on Thursday the day after an operation for an abdominal hernia which raised questions about his health.
The Argentinian Jesuit has had recurring medical problems since he succeeded Benedict XVI in 2013, who resigned and died in December 2022 at the age of 95.
Francis has repeatedly said that he would consider giving up his office — like Benedict XVI — if his health were to fail, but he recently claimed that was not on the cards.
More than 24 hours after his operation, the pope is on a water diet and his progress is regular, the Vatican said in a statement Thursday evening.
“His general state of health is good, he is alert and breathing spontaneously,” Holy See press service director Matteo Bruni said earlier, citing the pope’s medical team.
Limping due to pain in the hips and one knee, most often now moving in a wheelchair or leaning on a cane, François had presided over the weekly audience on Wednesday morning in Saint-Pierre in front of thousands of faithful, before going at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
He was operated there on Wednesday under general anesthesia, for three hours, in order to absorb painful “adhesions” on his abdominal wall, consequences of his colon operation in July 2021.
A “benign” intervention that will not leave any sequelae, according to his surgeon. The pope woke up at the end of the afternoon joking with his doctors, said Professor Sergio Alfieri, who had already operated on him in 2021, during a press conference on Wednesday evening.
François, who was suffering from increasingly severe pain and took the decision to have the operation himself, “does not suffer from other illnesses”, he also assured.
The pope is expected to spend several days on the 10th floor of this establishment known as “the popes’ hospital”, in the same room used on numerous occasions by John Paul II.
According to Dr. Alfieri, this type of intervention generally requires “five to seven days” of convalescence, but “every precaution” will be taken for the health of the head of the Catholic Church.
His audiences have also been canceled until June 18 “as a precautionary measure,” the Vatican said.
Lung surgery at the age of 21, affected by hip and knee problems, François is regularly forced to lighten his schedule due to health problems, which fuel concerns and speculation.
At the end of March, he had already returned to Gemelli Hospital for a respiratory infection, which had required antibiotic treatment for three days.
Two weeks ago, during an interview with the Spanish-speaking television Telemundo, he confided that this “pneumonia” had been treated “in time”. “If we had waited a few more hours, it would have been much more serious,” he admitted.
In St. Peter’s Square, in the Vatican, the pope’s hospitalization was greeted with prayers from the faithful and shopkeepers. “I’m Jewish, I said a prayer for the pope in my own way,” Raimondo Zanfani, who has been selling religious objects to tourists for 50 years, told AFP.
In recent months, rumors about the possibility of a renunciation of his office and his succession have redoubled in intensity.
Despite these repeated medical alerts, François maintains a busy schedule and a steady pace, with sometimes a dozen appointments in the same morning.
He also continues to travel, with a particularly full agenda in the coming months: he is due to go to Portugal in early August, to Mongolia in early September and to France, in Marseille (south) on September 23.
06/08/2023 20:00:05 – Rome (AFP) – © 2023 AFP