Pope Francis is said to be recovering successfully from his surgery yesterday evening.
From the ABC article:
'The brief medical bulletin contained the first details the Vatican released, coming more than 12 hours after the end of Sunday's surgery. The procedure was necessitated by what the Holy See said was a diverticular stenosis, or narrowing the pope's sigmoid portion of the large intestine.'
"Francis was spending his first morning convalescing in a Rome hospital following the surgery on the left side of his large intestine."
"Before Monday's statement, the Vatican had given scant details about the operation at Gemelli Polyclinic, a major Catholic hospital in the Italian capital."
"...When the Vatican announced on Sunday afternoon that Francis had been admitted to hospital for a planned operation, it said that he needed surgery because he had developed a diverticular stenosis, or narrowing, of the sigmoid portion of the large intestine."
"Without citing sources, Rome daily Il Messaggero reported that "complications" arose during the surgery. Without specifying what happened, the newspaper said that the surgeons, after starting to operate via laparoscopy, ended up having to do incisions.
"Patients having laparoscopic surgery generally require shorter hospital stays.
"Doctors not connected to the pope's hospitalization have said it is common to perform a re-sectioning of the affected part of the bowel in such cases."
I agree - it sounds quite serious. I am glad he is convalescing.
ReplyDeleteBetty, my resident medical technician, says that this is basically a bowel obstruction, a collapse of a section of bowel. They take that section out. It is always an emergency procedure. If you don't take care of it, it is dying tissue. It is basically like a ruptured appendix.
ReplyDeleteThe cure is a diet high on insoluble fiber. The first six weeks he is going to be on a very soft diet. Normally they would send people home after a couple of days. His doctors have likely decided they need to do some serious conversion therapy on his overweight problem and his eating habits.
Betty would like to know if it was laparoscopic or open surgery. Lot of difference in the recovery period. Open no way you are going to return to normal business in six weeks laparoscopic is two weeks.
Very likely it was open because he is seriously overweight.
According to the article, it started out being laparoscopic, but something happened and they ended up having to do open surgery. I read in another article that they removed about half his colon, which would be about two and a half feet. I hope they will rethink his travel schedule for the rest of 2021, there's no way he should be traveling anywhere in September, which was his next scheduled trip.
DeleteIt may be that he is a stress eater. I can relate!
ReplyDeleteHow could anyone live in Italy and not be a few pounds over!
DeleteThis will change Francis life. He will likely return not to Santa Marta but to the Papal Palace which has all the equipment in the Papal Suite to manage his recovery.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Benedict, Francis has not been surrounded by a household of nuns and a priest who take care of him. Obviously he can't go to join Benedict, and likely would not want to join him even in retirement.
So he will have to create the equivalent of a papal household in the Papal Palace. Initially this will likely consist of medical personnel. But he will need a special diet, and people to watch over him for the rest of his life.
What will he make of all this? I am sure he will slowly go through a discernment about what this means for the rest of his papacy. Does it mean that he has to resign? Does it mean that he has to conduct the papacy differently? He might decide that there is some merit in this stage of things to begin a low profile papacy while he presides over the developments he his initiated, e.g. the environment and synods. After all ideally in a post Francis papacy, the next pope would not be a mover and a shaker who might undo or ignore most of what Francis has initiated but more of a caretaker. Why not be that himself while the Church and World absorbs his impact? Then perhaps when it comes time for the next papacy, the electors will choose someone who will let synodal government continue its development rather than have a great agenda of his own.
I don't think it necessarily means he will resign, especially if he makes a good recovery. But I think you are right that he will conduct the papacy differently. For one thing, it isn't really necessary that he travel as much, or at all. Popes successfully led the church for centuries without traveling; people came to them. Of course this is someone talking who has only taken four trips by plane in her life. And who finds long car trips daunting and exhausting. But maybe Pope Francis enjoys traveling. In which case, I hope he still will get to do at least some of it.
DeleteActually Francis does NOT enjoy traveling. When he was in Argentina he was a homebody. He has often criticized airport bishops.
DeleteHe has spent a lot of his travel time going to places where popes have not gone before, and has avoided places like the US unless there was something like the World Day of Families or World Youth Day which seeming required him.
Even before there was Papal travel there were Papal Legates to things like Eucharistic Congresses.
What he needs to create is the office of Vice-Pope who diplomatically would rank with Vice-Presidents and out rank Secretaries of State.
When he came to the US he would meet directly with the President and have certain powers to negotiate things as if he were Pope, similarly when interacting with American Bishops he would be treated as if he were the Pope. That is, if he told the Bishops not to issue a document on the Eucharist, they would be expected to say "Rome has spoken, the issue is ended."
The Office of Vice-Pope (there could be more than one, but the Office would expire when a Pope died) could save a lot on Papal travel but keep the Papacy involved in a lot of places both in the political and ecclesiastical life of nations. At the same time it would continue to demystify the Papacy.
According to several sources I have read, it will take 4-6 weeks “ before the pope would be able to resume his normal duties”. I suspect that is the key to the timing of his surgery. He wants to be back at work by the beginning of September, when the Europeans have returned from their summer vacations. The mother of a close friend had colon cancer treatments and surgery at age 90, and, after rehab and recovery, returned to her home where she lived alone and stayed there without help until after her hundredth birthday.
ReplyDeleteIt’s too soon to assume that Francis is done. He has a strong will. I will be surprised if he becomes a permanent invalid.
If we're speculating that his health may lead Francis to resign, just imagine the maneuvers and gyrations which must be going on among cardinals and all those who would influence the choice of his successor!
ReplyDeleteHopefully speculations about him resigning or passing away are premature! All indications from the news are that he is recovering successfully. Of course you don't bounce back immediately from something like that, but hopefully time and good care will restore him to health.
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