The pontiff is doing better again. He’s still in the clinic where he was operated on a week ago. From the top floor of the house he held the Angelus prayer in front of believers on Sunday.
Rome – A week after his bowel operation, Pope Francis appeared again in public on Sunday.
The head of the Catholic Church held the traditional Angelus prayer from a balcony on the top floor of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in front of a large crowd of believers who had gathered in front of the hospital. Francis emphasized the importance of good public health. “We must all be committed to this, because it serves everyone and demands everyone’s contribution,” he said.
On Sunday before, doctors at the hospital had removed part of the 84-year-old’s colon in a planned procedure. According to Vatican News, there is a hospital room on the top floor of the ten-story building in northern Rome, which is reserved especially for the Pope. For Francis it was the first stay there in his pontificate, which has now lasted more than eight years.
His predecessor John Paul II (1979-2005), however, was a kind of “regular guest” there, according to Vatican News. He was operated there ten times, the first time after the attack in 1981. The Gemelli Clinic called John Paul “Vatican number three”, after St. Peter’s Square and the papal summer residence Castel Gandolfo.
On Sunday, Francis also remembered Haiti, where President Jovenel Moïse was murdered last week and his wife was seriously injured. He joins the appeal of the country’s bishops to lay down their arms. “I am close to the people of Haiti and I hope that the spiral of violence will end,” he said. dpa
