Pope Francis in hospital for intestinal surgery

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Pope Francis In Hospital For Intestinal Surgery
Vatican Pope, © AP/Press Association Images
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By Frances D'Emilio, Associated Press

Pope Francis has gone to hospital for scheduled surgery on a restriction of the large intestine.

A brief announcement from the Vatican on Sunday afternoon did not say when the stenosis surgery would be performed but said there would be announcement when the surgery is complete.

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Three hours earlier, Francis had cheerfully greeted the public in St Peter’s Square in keeping with a Sunday tradition and told them he will go to Hungary and Slovakia in September.

The 84-year-old will have the surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic.


Pope Francis blesses the crowd at the Vatican
Pope Francis blesses the crowd at the Vatican (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

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The Vatican said the Pope had been diagnosed with “symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon”, a narrowing in the large intestine.

Francis is in generally good health, but did have part of one lung removed as a young man. He also suffers from sciatica, occasionally having painful bouts of the condition that involves a nerve affecting the lower back and leg.

He had a particularly demanding set of appointments last week, including celebrating a Mass on Tuesday to mark the Catholic feast day honouring saints Peter and Paul, and later in the week presiding at a special prayer service for Lebanon.

On June 28, he had a long private audience at the Vatican with US secretary of state Antony Blinken.

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Throughout all those engagements, Francis appeared to be in good spirits.

Gemelli doctors have performed surgery before on papal patients, including on John Paul II, who had a benign tumour in his colon removed in 1992.

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