Francis leaves hospital after surgery Francis leaves hospital after surgery

Pope Francis is back in the Vatican after abdominal surgery and nearly a week and a half in hospital. The 86-year-old left the Gemelli clinic in Rome on Friday morning, to the applause of many passers-by and worshipers, where he had undergone surgery nine days earlier for an imminent intestinal obstruction.

The head of the Catholic Church was driven to his small white car, which then took him away. “I’m still alive,” joked the Argentinian. He seemed relaxed and relieved.

He then drove to the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for prayer. Francis had already gone there after his two previous stays at the clinic – in 2021 after bowel surgery and most recently in April after pneumonia. Before and after the Pope’s travels, he always comes to Santa Maria Maggiore to pray.

The Pope’s next trips abroad are scheduled for World Youth Day in Lisbon in early August and Mongolia in late August. He can now make these trips “even better than before, because the problems he had before have disappeared,” said his surgeon Sergio Alfieri.

The doctor explained that the procedure – called a laparotomy to treat a hernia in the abdomen – eases the pain that increasingly plagued Francis. “He will become a stronger pope now.”

After returning to his apartment in the Santa Marta boarding house, the recently canceled private audiences resume. On Sunday, Francis will pray the Angelus prayer for the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. Last Sunday, for the first time during the pontificate, he did not pray the prayer to the Virgin Mary in public. Due to the consequences of the abdominal surgery, the pope must remain careful and not stand for long periods of time. A general audience next Wednesday was therefore cancelled.

Francis had recovered from surgery at Gemelli Hospital in an apartment set up especially for popes. On Thursday, photos were published for the first time after the operation, showing how the pope visited the pediatric oncology and pediatric neurosurgery departments.

(yam/sda/dpa)