Francis' Surgery: Vatican Press Office Fiction And Reality

Francis appeared for the first time in public for the Sunday Angelus after his July 4 bowel surgery.

Speaking from the balcony of the VIP suite on the 10th floor of Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, surrounded by hospitalised children, he gave a secularised interpretation of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and used a pseudo-poetic language to express his wish that “everyone may receive the anointing of listening, closeness, tenderness and care.”

He quickly abandoned religion and sentimentalism in order to ask for worldwide free hospital care. After reciting the Angelus in Latin he spoke about politics in Haiti, sailers, "no plastics in the sea," and the Radio Maria pilgrimage to Częstochowa.

Then, he repeated his usual allusion to the stomach by saying “Buon pranzo” (Good lunch) while those gathered below were shouting "Viva il Papa" (video).

Twitter User Catholic Sat, a medical doctor, observed that for the first time in this Pontificate, Francis looked and sounded [towards the end of the Angelus] like an old man. At the beginning one could see how a shaky Francis appeared on the balcony. When he left, the camera avoided showing him.

Francesco Antonio Grana published pictures showing Francis in a wheelchair. It is unavoidable that such an invasive surgery has a major impact on a 84-year-old who is overweight and suffers from sciatica.

Nevertheless, the Vatican Press Office claimed unperturbed on Friday that Francis “walked in the corridor,” and on Saturday that he “continues to stroll in the corridor of the apartment” as if on July 4 the surgeons only cut his fingernails.

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