Pope Francis continues to recover favorably from the operation for an abdominal hernia he underwent last week. So much so that the doctors have confirmed that on the morning of this Friday, June 16, the Pontiff will be discharged from the Gemelli Polyclinic hospital in Rome and will be able to return to his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta.
When the surgeon Sergio Alfieri told the details of the three-hour intervention that Francis underwent last Wednesday, he already warned that he would be in the hospital for about a week, but as a precaution the Prefecture of the Papal Household, which manages the agenda of the popes, he wanted to cancel all his meetings until next Monday. The medical team decided to intervene to solve an abdominal hernia – surely formed after other past operations – that threatened to obstruct his intestine, but since then the daily communiqués of the Holy See have been reporting that the evolution of the 86-year-old Pontiff is good.
Today’s report also tells that last night Francisco dined with all those who are assisting him during this admission. This morning he has been very busy. First of all, he has received all the medical team that he made the operation possible, the doctors, nurses, socio-sanitary personnel and assistants.
Afterwards, he also met various church leaders and hospital managers and finally went to the Pediatric Oncology and Children’s Neurosurgery unit where some children are hospitalized who have sent letters and drawings these days wishing him a speedy recovery, and he has given them a gift. rosary and a book “The Pope has felt closely the pain of these children who carry on their backs every day, together with their mothers and fathers, the suffering of the cross,” Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni wrote in a statement. .
It is the same unit that Francisco visited during his last admission to the hospital, at the end of March due to pneumonia, when after donating rosaries and chocolate eggs he baptized a few-day-old baby, little Miguel Ángel. On this occasion, the Pontiff has left the apartment reserved for the popes on the tenth floor of the hospital to greet his little neighbors, who have received him with applause.
At 86, Jorge Mario Bergoglio also suffers from problems walking due to severe knee pain, but he doesn’t seem to want to slow down during his pontificate. In August he plans to attend the World Youth Days to be held in Lisbon and recently the Vatican has also confirmed a trip to Mongolia between August 31 and September 4, the first by a pope to this Asian country.
