Pope Francis is already recovering from surgery on the large intestine that was performed in Rome as scheduled, the Vatican reported this Sunday.
"The Holy Father reacted well to the operation,"
the Vatican said in a statement, after an inflamed portion of the colon was removed.
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Just three hours earlier, Francisco happily greeted those gathered in St. Peter's Square, according to Sunday tradition.
He told them that he would go to Hungary and Slovakia in September.
Pope Francis blesses the crowd during the Angelus prayer, in the window of his study overlooking St. Peter's Square, in the Vatican, on Sunday, July 4, 2021. AP / Alessandra Tarantino / AP
A week earlier, 84-year-old Francisco took advantage of the same traditional apparition to ask those gathered for a special prayer for himself, which - in retrospect - may have been an indication of the scheduled surgery at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome.
"I ask you to pray for the pope, pray in a special way
," Francis told the faithful who were in the square on June 27.
"The pope needs your prayers," he said adding his thanks and saying "I know they will."
Francisco is generally in good health but had part of one lung removed when he was young.
He also suffers from sciatica and occasionally has painful episodes involving a nerve that affects the lower back and leg.
Sometimes this has caused him to suspend some of his activities.
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According to experts in the digestive system, the objective of this type of surgery is to reduce the problems caused by diverticula, which are small hernias in the wall of the colon with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations that include bleeding, inflammation (diverticulitis) and complications such as obstruction. or perforation.
Diverticular disease of the colon is very common in Western society,
affecting almost 65% of the population at 85 years of age.
In 2017, in an interview with the Argentine journalist and doctor Nelson Castro in Rome, the pontiff gave details of the operation he underwent in 1957, when he was a 21-year-old seminarian, to remove the upper lobe of his right lung in the that they had detected three cysts, and gallbladder surgery, when he was already provincial superior of the Jesuits.
Pope Francis receives the winner of the Giro d'Italia at the Vatican
June 16, 202100: 24
He also commented on a heart problem he suffered in 2004 and said that after becoming a father, he was diagnosed with fatty liver, a condition that he overcame with a special diet that made him lose weight.
In addition, he explained that he has a narrowness in the intervertebral space between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae, and that he suffers from flat feet, which is why he sometimes walks like "a crooked hen."
The pope had a particularly demanding series of appointments last week
, including holding a mass on Tuesday to mark the Catholic holiday honoring Saints Peter and Paul, and then presiding over a special prayer service for Lebanon.
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On June 28 he had a long private audience at the Vatican with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Throughout all these engagements, Francisco seemed to be in a good mood.
Doctors at the Gemelli Polyclinic have already performed operations on various pontiffs, including Pope John Paul II, who had a benign tumor removed from his colon in 1992.
With information from AP and EFE
