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News > Italy

Pope Francis' Colon Surgery in Rome Successfully Completed

  • The morning after undergoing colon surgery, Pope Francis was in “good general condition, alert and breathing spontaneously,” the Vatican press office said.

    The morning after undergoing colon surgery, Pope Francis was in “good general condition, alert and breathing spontaneously,” the Vatican press office said. | Photo: Twitter/@CatholicNewsSvc

Published 5 July 2021
Opinion

The Pope was successfully operated on for a diverticular stenosis in his colon at the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital in Rome, where he arrived at 13:00 local time to undergo the previously scheduled surgery.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See press office, said in a statement that the Pope "reacted well to the operation in which he was given general anesthesia." The doctor in charge of the surgical operation on the colon was the head doctor of the digestive surgery department of the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital, Sergio Alfieri.

According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, the colon surgery had been scheduled in advance.

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As he does every Sunday, at 12:00 noon, Francis, 84, prayed the Angelus prayer from his private study window in the Apostolic Palace. His agenda for the next few days will be reduced although he has scheduled an international trip from September 12 to 15 to Slovakia, as he himself announced.

Just after finishing the Angelus he was admitted to the hospital. It is not currently known when he will be discharged.

Since the beginning of his papacy, the Pontiff had only undergone cataract surgery in December 2019. On that occasion it was a simple, routine laser eye surgery, which did not require the Pope to be hospitalized for more than a few hours and did not affect his schedule.

The Pontiff himself had warned during a visit to the Roman prison of Regina Coeli: "It would be a good thing to have a renewal because at my age, for example, cataracts come and you can't see reality well: next year I will have to have an operation," he had commented while talking to the detainees in the prison in Rome.

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