Pope Francis Hospitalized in Rome for Colon Surgery

Pope Francis is under observation in a hospital in Rome after undergoing a scheduled intestinal surgery Sunday evening, the Vatican said. The pontiff "reacted well" to the general anesthesia during the surgery, Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement late Sunday that did not provide much detail about the pope's medical condition.

Bruni did not say how long the surgery lasted, nor for how long the pope, 84, was unconscious under anesthesia. It was also not clear how long Francis would stay at Rome's Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, a Catholic hospital. "The Holy Father, admitted in the afternoon to A. Gemelli Polyclinic, underwent in the evening planned surgery for a diverticular stenosis of the sigmoid" portion of the colon, Bruni said in the brief written statement. "The Holy Father reacted well to the surgery conducted under general anesthesia," the spokesman said, noting there was a four-person surgical team, plus a four-person anesthesiologist team.

According to the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, symptomatic diverticular stenosis is a "common condition that involves small bulges or sacs called diverticula that form from the wall of the large intestine."

The day started like any other Sunday for Francis, who cheerfully announced during his traditional Sunday appearance to the faithful in St. Peter's Square that he would go to Hungary and Slovakia in September. He made no mention of the impending surgery, but headed to the hospital shortly after his appearance. At the end of his public remarks, he told the crowd, "And please, don't forget to pray for me," the Associated Press reports. He casually added, "Thanks, ciao."

He may have alluded to the health condition a week before, however, when he used his same Sunday appearance to ask the public for "special" prayers for himself. "I ask you to pray for the pope, pray in a special way," he asked the faithful in the square on June 27. "The pope needs your prayers," he said, adding, "I know you will do that."

Though Francis is generally in good health, this was not his first health scare. In his 2020 book Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, he opened up about nearly dying from the flu at age 21. As a result, he had part of one lung removed. "When I got really sick at the age of twenty-one I had my first experience of limit, of pain and loneliness. It changed the way I saw life," Pope Francis wrote. "For months, I didn't know who I was, and whether I would live or die. The doctors had no idea whether I'd make it either."