Pope Francis, “wisely” following doctors’ advice, remains in hospital and will skip Sunday’s customary public blessing to allow himself to better heal after abdominal surgery earlier this week, his surgeon told reporters.
Blood and imaging tests indicate the 86-year-old Pope’s recovery is proceeding in an “absolutely normal” manner, Sergio Alfieri also told reporters on Saturday at Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome.
During the three-hour operation Wednesday using general anesthesia, doctors removed increasingly painful scarring that resulted from previous abdominal surgeries as well as repaired a hernia in the abdominal wall, with the insertion of a prosthetic support netting, or mesh.
Alfieri said Francis’s recovery has been medically uneventful, but any extra physical exertion, like rising from bed to move to an armchair to recite the traditional Sunday noon blessing and commentary to the public through a video link, could be risky at this point.
While the Vatican said earlier in the week that Francis had occasionally been sitting in a chair to read newspapers, the weekly noon appointment customarily involves the Pope speaking to the public for about 15 minutes and giving his blessing.
‘Careful recovery’
Advice by his doctors and the Pope’s trusted Vatican nurse to forgo the Sunday appearance is aimed at achieving “the least strain on the abdominal wall in order to allow the implanted mesh and the muscle fascia repaired to heal optimally,” Alfieri said.
“In the next few days, if he’s not careful about healing, the netting could tear and he’ll be back in the operating room,” the surgeon said.
“If he has a careful recovery, he’ll be back better” than before at the Vatican, Alfieri said. “It’s prudence that we suggested and that he wisely accepted.”
Francis has graduated from a liquid to a semi-liquid diet and had no fever, according to his medical staff.
His cardiac and respiratory status was also fine, Alfieri said in his first medical briefing on the pontiff’s condition since the one he gave Wednesday shortly after the Pope came around from the anesthetic.
Private Sunday prayer
Francis will recite the traditional Sunday noon prayer privately in his hospital room, and faithful are encouraged to join in the prayer, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said.
Thousands of people were expected in St. Peter’s Square for a late afternoon gathering at the Vatican to promote brotherhood — a quality so dear to Francis that he wrote an encyclical on its importance in 2020. In that document, the Pope explained his vision of a post-COVID-19 world built on solidarity, fraternity and care for the environment.
But instead of hearing a speech from the Pope, as faithful had originally hoped, a Vatican cardinal will read a speech from Francis, Bruni said.
While in the 10th-floor apartment reserved for papal use at Gemelli Polyclinic, Francis has been reading newspapers while sitting in an armchair, and spent time working and in prayer, the Vatican said earlier in the week.
No date has yet been announced for his release from hospital.
“We hope we will convince him to stay at least the whole next week,” Alfieri said on Saturday.
When the surgery was announced, the Vatican said the Pope was expected to be hospitalized for several days. Alfieri said by opting to spend more of his convalescence in hospital instead of leaving after a handful of days, the Pope can return “to his work with more strength and safety.”
Francis has two trips abroad set for August: first to Portugal, for a Catholic youth jamboree, and to Mongolia at the end of that month, the first-ever pilgrimage by a pontiff to that Asian country.
Asked about the prospects for those strenuous trips given his surgery, Alfieri said the pontiff “made these calculations” when deciding to go ahead with the June 7 surgery, an indication Francis felt the timing of the operation would allow him to stick to his travel plans.
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