VATICAN: Pope Francis went on Sunday to a Rome hospital for scheduled surgery for a stenosis, or restriction, of the large intestine, the Vatican said.

The brief announcement from the Vatican’s press office didn’t say exactly when the surgery would be performed but said there would be an announcement when the surgery is complete.

Just three hours earlier, Pope Francis had cheerfully greeted the public in St. Peters Square in keeping with a Sunday tradition and told them he will go to Hungary and Slovakia in September.

The Vatican said the pope had been diagnosed with symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon, a reference to a narrowing in the large intestine.

A week earlier, Pope Francis, 84, had used the same appearance to ask the public for special prayers for himself, which, in hindsight might have been hinting at the planned surgery at Romes Gemelli Polyclinic.

I ask you to pray for the pope, pray in a special way, Pope Francis had asked the faithful in the square in his June 27 appearance. The pope needs your prayers, he said, adding his thanks and saying I know you will do that.

Pope 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. That has forced him at times to skip scheduled appearances.

The pope had a particularly demanding set of appointments last week, including celebrating a Mass on Tuesday to mark the Catholic feast day honoring Saints Peter and Paul, and later in the week, presiding at a special prayer service for Lebanon. On June 28, he also had a long private audience at the Vatican with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Throughout all those engagements, Pope Francis appeared to be in good spirits.

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

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2021