Vatican: Pope Francis’ doctors plan to discharge him from hospital ‘in the next few days’

By Courtney Mares

Rome Newsroom, Jun 14, 2023 / 07:30 am

Pope Francis’ doctors expect the pope to be discharged from the hospital “in the next few days,” according to the Vatican.

The 86-year-old pope is currently recovering in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital one week after he underwent a three-hour surgery for an incisional hernia. A team of surgeons removed scar tissue and operated on a hernia in the pope’s abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said June 14 that the hospital’s medical staff have reported that the pope’s recovery is “proceeding regularly, without complications, and are therefore planning to discharge him in the next few days.”

Bruni added that the pope has been working from the hospital’s papal medical suite, where he also spent time in prayer in its small chapel and received the Eucharist.

The Vatican has canceled all of the pope’s public and private audiences until June 18.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, who operated on Pope Francis on June 7, has said that from a medical point of view, he believes there would be nothing preventing the pope from continuing with his planned travels to Portugal and Mongolia in August after his recovery.

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.