Pope Francis’ recovery from an operation for an incisional hernia on June 7 has “progressed in a regular way,” and he will be discharged from hospital and return to the Vatican on Friday morning, June 16, his medical team confirmed today.
The pope’s doctors confirmed several times over the past week that his recovery has been progressing “without complications” and his blood tests are normal.
By tomorrow, the 86-year-old pope Francis will have spent nine days in the hospital after the three-hour operation that he underwent, under general anesthesia, on June 7. This was his third hospitalization over the last two years: He spent 10 days in the hospital after an operation on his colon on July 4, 2021, and four days after being treated in hospital for acute bronchitis on March 29, 2023.
Pope Francis’ recovery from an operation for an incisional hernia on June 7 has “progressed in a regular way,” and he will be discharged from hospital and return to the Vatican on Friday morning.
Sergio Alfieri, the surgeon who operated on him in 2021 and again on June 7 of this year, has given the pope a clean bill of health for a man of his age. Rumors have circulated in recent years that Pope Francis is suffering from more serious cardiac or respiratory problems or has cancer. Responding to questions from journalists, Dr. Alfieri made clear in two press conferences (on June 7, after the operation, and on June 10) that these rumors are false and that the biopsy results on the tissues removed in both operations were shown to be benign.
“He does not have infirmities,” the doctor stated in relation to the pope’s heart, lungs, and abdomen. Commenting on how alert and humorous the pope is, Dr. Alfieri remarked: “Although the pope’s identity card shows that he is a man of 86, he has the head of a man of 60!”
The surgeon did not speak about Francis’ mobility issues. Problems with the pope’s right knee forced him to use a wheelchair for several months. In recent months, Francis has regained mobility and is able to walk again, at least short distances, with the assistance of a cane; he is also able to stand up for some considerable time.
Nevertheless, Francis still has to use a wheelchair for longer distances. The fracture on his knee has healed after laser treatment, magnotherapy and physiotherapy, and he is now more mobile than three months ago. But Francis refuses to have surgery on his knee as some in the Vatican have suggested. “One governs from the head, not from the legs,” he has quipped more than once.
The news of his imminent discharge from the hospital was given to the Vatican press office by the medical team that has been monitoring the pope’s recovery for more than a week. Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, communicated the news to the Vatican accredited media around midday today.
He reported that the pope had dinner last evening, June 14, with all those who had assisted him in hospital since he began his recovery. This morning, he also thanked all the medical staff that have cared for him over the past nine days.
Check out some of the images of #PopeFrancis' visit this morning to the Paediatric Oncology and Child Neurosurgery Ward on the tenth floor of the #Gemelli Hospital, adjacent to the suite where he is convalescing. pic.twitter.com/jafc2zszjj
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) June 15, 2023
Pope Francis then visited the children’s oncological and neurosurgical wards to visit the young patients and thank them for the many messages, drawings, and letters that they have sent him over the past week. He gave each of them the gift of a rosary and a book, and, Mr. Bruni said, “he touched with his own hand the pain that they and their mothers and fathers carry each day.” Francis also thanked the staff and personnel of these wards for the care and affection they give to these children.
During these days in hospital, the pope has read the newspapers and various documents and correspondence and made phone calls. He has also devoted much time to prayer and reflection and received the Eucharist every day. He is in “very good spirits,” his surgeon and other people who have spoken to him said, but he has gotten “a little bored” and is keen to return to Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he lives.
His surgeon told the press that it takes about three months for a person to recover fully from the kind of operation that Francis has had, and he told the pope that he must take care not to cause undue stress to his abdomen in the coming weeks.
The Vatican has not yet said what the pope’s schedule will be in the coming weeks, nor if he will recite the Angelus from the study window of the third floor of the Apostolic Palace at midday on Sunday, June 18. For the moment, his foreign travels to World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal (Aug. 2 to 6), Mongolia (Aug. 31 to Sept. 4), and Marseilles, France (Sept. 23), are still on course.
