Pope Francis will undergo abdominal surgery under general anaesthetic on Wednesday afternoon, the Vatican has confirmed.
The operation was planned by the Pope’s medical team in recent days, after it became necessary due to a hernia causing recurrent, painful, and worsening symptoms, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Bruni said that Pope Francis will have a laparotomy and abdominal wall reconstruction with prosthetic material in the early afternoon of 7 June.
The Pope was taken to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital immediately after his regular general audience in St Peter’s Square and will recover in the hospital for several days post-surgery.
The news of Pope Francis’ surgery comes one day after the Italian press reported that he went to Gemelli hospital’s centre for the elderly for a 40-minute visit on 6 June.
Pope Francis, 86, was hospitalised for four days in March for a lung infection and canceled all of his scheduled activities on 26 May due to a fever.
Since early 2022, the Pope has suffered from knee pain. He started to have difficulty standing and walking and has been using a cane and wheelchair for over a year.
Pope Francis told the Italian bishops in May last year that he did not want to have his knee operated on because he did not want to go under general anaesthetic again following his July 2021 colon surgery.
The Pope has also dealt this year with a recurrence of diverticulitis, a painful inflammation of bulges in the large intestine, for which he was operated on in July 2021.
Despite his recent medical challenges, the Vatican recently announced the Pope’s intention to visit Mongolia from 31 August to 1 September.
Francis is also scheduled to be in Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day on 2-6 August. The trip also includes a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima.
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