This photograph taken on June 11, 2023, shows the statue of the late Pope John Paul II at the entrance to the Gemelli hospital in Rome. Pope Francis underwent an operation for an abdominal hernia on June 7, 2023, at the Rome hospital. / Credit: … […]
Students at the Polytechnic University of Turin built the satellite that launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on June 12, 2023. / Credit: Holy See Press Office
Rome Newsroom, Jun 13, 2023 / 11:30 am (… […]
Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) climate change activists Ester Goffi (right) and Guido Viero (second right) arrive at the Vatican on May 24, 2023, to attend their second hearing for having glued themselves to the statue of "Laocoon and… […]
Pope Francis poses for a photo with a group of young people after his general audience Aug. 17, 2022. / Pablo Esparza/CNA
Vatican City, Jun 13, 2023 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has said that the rise in teen suicides points to a deeper spiri… […]
Dr. Sergio Alfieri (left), Pope Francis’ surgeon, and Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruno hold a press conference Saturday, June 10, 2023, at Gemelli Hospital in Rome. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jun 12, 2023 / 10:15 am (CNA).
The Vatican said Monday that Pope Francis is working from the hospital as he recovers from hernia surgery.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists on June 12 that Pope Francis’ “postoperative progress continues to be normal” five days after the pope underwent a three-hour surgery for an incisional hernia.
Bruni added that the pope is eating regularly, has received the Eucharist daily, and has begun working from the hospital.
On Sunday, the pope watched Sunday Mass on television and received the Eucharist in his hospital room before praying the Angelus in the chapel in the papal medical suite and eating lunch with some hospital staff.
The 86-year-old pope is expected to remain recovering in Rome’s Gemelli hospital for the next week. The Vatican has canceled all of the pope’s audiences until June 18.
While working from the hospital, Pope Francis sent a message to the European People’s Party, the largest political party in the European Parliament, and sent a condolence telegram to the family of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who died on Monday, June 12.
A Eucharistic procession in the Vatican Gardens on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ on June 11, 2023. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Jun 12, 2023 / 05:00 am (CNA).
On the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, a German bishop l… […]
Young people from around the world held hands in St. Peter’s Square during the #NotAlone human fraternity event June 10, 2023. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jun 10, 2023 / 11:43 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said in a message Saturday that others should be treated with dignity and respect, not as objects to exploit or throw away.
The pope’s speech was read aloud at a live-streamed event on human fraternity, sponsored by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation, held in St. Peter’s Square June 10. Pope Francis was scheduled to attend before being hospitalized on Wednesday for an abdominal surgery.
“Even though I am unable to greet you in person, I would like to welcome and thank you wholeheartedly for coming,” Francis said in the message, read by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and president of the Fratelli Tutti Foundation.
“In the encyclical Fratelli tutti,” the pope said, “I wrote: ‘Fraternity necessarily calls for something greater, which in turn enhances freedom and equality,’ since the one who sees the other as a brother or sister sees in him or her a face, not a number.”
“The other is always ‘someone’ who has dignity and merits respect, and not ‘something’ to be used, exploited or thrown away,” he added.
The June 10 event, called “#Not Alone,” was centered on the signing of a declaration on human fraternity drafted by a dozen Nobel Peace Prize winners together with representatives of former Nobel Prize-winning organizations.
“United with Pope Francis, we want to reaffirm that ‘authentic reconciliation does not flee from conflict, but is achieved in conflict, resolving it through dialogue and open, honest and patient negotiation’ (Fratelli Tutti, n. 244). All this within the context of the human rights framework,” the declaration says.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state, signed the document in Pope Francis’ place June 10.
After the signing of the document, young people representing different countries formed “a symbolic embrace” by joining hands in a ring around St. Peter’s Square.
The six-hour event included speeches, testimonies, performances by Italian music artists — including Grammy-winner Andrea Bocelli — and circus performers.
Nobel laureates in attendance included Iraqi human rights advocate Nadia Murad, Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege, and Yemeni Arab Spring leader Tawakkol Karman.
The former presidents of Colombia, Costa Rica, Poland, and Democratic Republic of East Timor — all peace prize winners — also participated, as well as representatives of several U.N. organizations that have been past recipients.
“In our world torn apart by violence and war, tweaks and adjustments are not enough,” Pope Francis said in his message. “Only a great spiritual and social covenant born from the heart and centered on fraternity can restore the sacredness and inviolability of human dignity as the core of relationships.”
“This does not require theories on fraternity but concrete gestures and shared decisions that make it a culture of peace,” he continued. “The question to ask ourselves is not what society and the world can give me, but what can I give to my brothers and sisters.”
“When we return home, let us think of some concrete gesture of fraternity that we can make: reconciling with family members, friends and neighbors, praying for those who hurt us, recognizing and helping those in need, speaking words of peace at school, university or in society, ‘anointing’ with closeness those who feel alone,” he said.
Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Jun 10, 2023 / 05:05 am (CNA).
At the recommendation of his doctors, Pope Francis will not pray the Sunday Angelus in public, the Vatican said Saturday.Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said at a press conference June … […]
Pope Francis at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 17, 2023. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jun 9, 2023 / 05:18 am (CNA).
Pope Francis is “steadily improving” two days after he underwent abdominal surgery to correct an incisional hernia, a Vatican spokesman said Friday.
According to Matteo Bruni, the pope rested during the night and on the morning of June 9 was able to eat breakfast and move from his hospital bed to an armchair.
“The medical team reports that the clinical picture is steadily improving and the post-operative progress is normal,” he said in a brief statement released shortly before 1:00 p.m. Rome time.
He added that Pope Francis was able to read the newspaper and do some work.
Francis underwent a three-hour surgery for an incisional hernia on June 7. 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.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the pope’s main surgeon, said at a press conference shortly after the operation that Francis had been experiencing increasing pain for several months due to the hernia and decided on June 6 to undergo the surgery to correct it.
The 86-year-old Francis has been hospitalized three times in the past two years.
He was hospitalized for four days in March for a lung infection and 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.
Religious leaders around the world have expressed their well-wishes and prayers for Pope Francis as he recovers in hospital.
The family of a baby baptized by the pope at the end of March sent a poster to Pope Francis.
Francis baptized Miguel Angel when he visited the pediatric oncology ward of Gemelli Hospital while he was hospitalized for a lung infection.
“We just want to thank you for blessing our brother and wish from the bottom of our hearts that you get better,” the poster said in Spanish.
The pope has also been sent a get-well card from children being treated at the Vatican-connected Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome.
A photograph shows an outside view of the Gemelli hospital in Rome on June 8, 2023, where Pope Francis has been hospitalized following an operation for an abdominal hernia on June 7. / Credit: Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images
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