Hospitalized Pope Francis follows Mass on TV, lunches with medical personnel and aides

ROME — Sticking to medical doctors’ recommendation, Pope Francis on Sunday skipped his customary Sunday midday public blessing as he convalesces from stomach surgical procedure, however he adopted Mass on TV from a Rome hospital and prayed in non-public, the Vatican stated.

Francis additionally ate lunch in his 10-floor hospital residence with medical doctors, nurses, different medical workers and members of his Vatican safety element, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated in a written assertion.

The surgeon who carried out the three-hour surgical procedure Wednesday to restore an stomach hernia and to take away painful inner scarring that had resulted from earlier operations stated the 86-year-old pontiff had begun a semi-liquid food plan.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri additionally advised reporters that medical workers had made clear to Francis their considerations that even when the pontiff delivered the midday public blessing and greeting from a balcony down the hall from his hospital room, he would possibly over-exert himself and tear a prosthetic mesh that was inserted as a part of the hernia restore.

If that occurred, it will require one other operation. The public blessing normally takes about quarter-hour.

Citing the evaluation of medical personnel, Bruni stated Sunday the pontiff’s restoration was continuing usually. “He did respiratory physiotherapy and continued to be mobile,” Bruni stated.

PHOTOS: Hospitalized Pope Francis follows Mass on TV, lunches with medical personnel and aides

As a younger man, Francis had a part of a lung eliminated on account of an infection, so his pulmonary perform is keenly watched. In March, the pontiff spent a number of days within the similar hospital for intravenous antibiotic therapy of bronchitis that had prompted Francis to run a fever.

On Sunday morning, the pope “followed Holy Mass live on television and received the Eucharist,” Bruni stated. Francis then recited the normal midday prayer often known as the Angelus in a small chapel space of the papal residence that Gemelli retains prepared for every time pontiffs would possibly want hospitalization.

No date has been introduced for Francis‘ return to the Vatican. But Alfieri on Saturday revealed that medical workers had been encouraging him to spend all of this week on the hospital so he can be in higher form to handle his heavy work load as soon as he went dwelling.

Two years in the past, when Francis had surgical procedure to take away a piece of his colon that had narrowed, the pontiff, flanked by a number of hospitalized kids, delivered a Sunday blessing from a Tenth-floor hospital balcony, seven days after that process. He was discharged 10 days after the operation.