Pope Francis. Pope Francis was admitted to Gemelli Hospital in Rome on Wednesday June 7 for emergency surgery. With a third hospitalization in a few months, the health of the sovereign pontiff is showing signs of weakness.
[Updated Jun 7, 2023 2:09 PM] Third hospitalization in a matter of months for Pope Francis. The sovereign pontiff was urgently admitted to the Gemelli hospital in Rome on Wednesday afternoon 7 to undergo an abdominal operation free from the risk of intestinal obstruction. The news announced in the morning by the Holy See surprised since the day before, the head of the Catholic Church had carried out a series of control examinations without any health problem being detected.
The hospitalization of Pope Francis, however, would not come as a surprise to the Vatican’s medical teams since the spokesman for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, indicated that the use of the operation has been “concerted in recent days by the medical team assisting the Holy Father”. The surgery “became necessary due to an abdominal hernia which causes recurrent, painful and worsening subocclusive syndromes”. Despite the operation, the greatest risk for Pope Francis remains the use of general anesthesia, a procedure always delicate on people with fragile health, especially since the head of the Church is 86 years old.
The operation to be undergone by Pope Francis should make it possible to avoid intestinal obstruction, that is to say the stopping of the transit of the digestive contents present in the intestine which prevents gas, food and fecal matter from dying. to be evacuated. The phenomenon can be serious and “we cannot live for several days with complete occlusion” explained Laurent Beaugerie, head of the gastroenterology and nutrition department at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, to BFMTV.
The planned surgery to prevent an intestinal obstruction does not involve significant risks, unlike general anesthesia which can be a heavy protocol to bear for patients of Pope Francis’ age and with fragile health. The Holy See has already announced that the hospitalization of the sovereign pontiff will last “several days” until Pope Francis has time to recover from the operation.
This new hospitalization is the third in the space of a few months. The pontiff’s comings and goings at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital began in late March with an emergency admission for pneumonia that the Vatican had tried to cover up. Another hospitalization of the pope occurred on May 26 due to a feverish state. And the day after check-ups that lasted an hour and likely removed all suspicion of a new hospitalization, the head of the Church is back in hospital this Wednesday, June 7 for an emergency operation because of a risk of bowel obstruction.
At 86 and after various medical problems, Pope Francis remains in fragile health and his condition risks being closely monitored, because on him depends the continuation of the pontificate and a potential renunciation. If in recent statements, in February and March 2023, the man assured that a resignation was not on the program, he could resign himself to it because of his state of health, like Benoit XVI before him. In the Holy See, the time is not in search of a successor. “There are uncertainties, not in terms of death, but in terms of renunciation. There is also legitimate questioning within the Church: Is Pope Francis fit to govern? How will the end of the pontificate if the pope is weakened?” analyzes researcher François Mabille.
At 86, Pope Francis has been in fragile health in recent months. Already on Friday, May 26, he had canceled all his appointments because of a fever. On March 29, 2023, a “respiratory infection” had led to his emergency hospitalization, and not “medical checks” as initially announced by the Vatican. The sovereign pontiff, who had complained of “some breathing difficulties” the previous days, was seized with pains in his chest after having honored the weekly general audience on Wednesday morning before the faithful in Saint Peter’s Square. Antibiotic treatment, to which the Pope responded well, had to be given for a few days in the hospital.
Prior to this episode, it was a colon operation that required the pope to be hospitalized in July 2021. “It was not a planned intervention, and the doctors at Gemelli Hospital in Rome would have liked to keep the pope under longer observation”, explained an Italian daily. The pope suffered from a potentially painful inflammation of the diverticula, hernias or pockets that form on the walls of the digestive tract and the frequency of which increases with age. One of the possible complications of this condition is stenosis, which is a narrowing of the intestine. The Vatican had indicated that the operation had taken place normally. Only, rumors have been circulating actively since this operation, some being convinced that cancer was discovered in him during this colon operation. On July 2, in an interview with Reuters, however, Pope Francis dismissed these “court gossip” out of hand. The only complications due to this intervention would have been sequelae of the anesthesia which would prevent the recourse to a knee operation to put an end to the pains of the sovereign of the Church.
Physically, Pope Francis has appeared diminished since May 2022, when the octogenarian still appears in public in a wheelchair or with a cane because of chronic knee pain. Generating travel difficulties, these pains led to the adjustment and relief of the sovereign.
Upon his appointment as pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio repeatedly indicated that he was ready to think about and resort to renunciation. He only conditioned his resignation on health that would no longer allow him to govern the Church. However, the discourse is no longer so clear today since in each interview with the press – in February 2023 and in March 2023 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his pontificate – Pope Francis has ruled out a possible resignation and swept aside the rumors going in this direction with the back of the hand. But these statements must be read in context according to the director of the religious geopolitics observatory at IRIS, François Mabille: “After the funeral of his predecessor, Pope Francis was attacked by the opposition. If he evokes the possibility of a resignation, he promotes the rise of people against him or the emergence of various currents opposed to his positions.If he rules out the renunciation, he remains the master of time as long as he lives and silenced the opposition for the duration of his pontificate.”
There is therefore a political and religious interest for Pope Francis not to be fully in favor of resignation if he wants to “carry out his reforms or consolidate the heritage of his pontificate”. Still, the sovereign pontiff could be overtaken by his health and that both physical and mental problems could justify a waiver according to the expert. “It is more worrying if the Pope is no longer intellectually fit to govern, which for the moment is not at all the case. Physically, if certain difficulties are not contrary to the exercise of power – the pope does not have to travel the world and can govern from his office – usury can prevent the continuation of the pontificate. The older you get, the less strength you have to work.” The various health problems encountered by the pope in recent years have already led to adjustments to his agenda and this respiratory infection could call for further relief. When the hour of choice comes, it will be up to the pope alone to make the decision whether or not to resign his office.
Short biography of Pope Francis – Real name Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he was born on December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After having been Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Cardinal, he was elected Pope of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013. Succeeding Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, known as “the Pope of the poor”, becomes the 266th Pope and is also the first non-European pope since the 13th century.
The child of Italian immigrants, Pope Francis has two brothers and two sisters, but only Maria Elena is still alive when she was elected papal. On December 25, 1936, he was baptized by Father Enrique Pozzoli, who later became his spiritual director. In 1949 he studied at the “Wilfrid Baron” Salesian College in the city of Ramos Mejia, then obtained a diploma as a chemical technician at the E.N.E.T. . Meanwhile, to support himself, he cleans a local factory and is also a bouncer in a poorly attended nightclub in Cordoba (Argentina). Then engaged to a young woman, he is in deep reflection which leads him to break his engagement and take orders. Indeed, he frequented the San José church in the Flores district (Buenos Aires) then, in 1953, he rubbed shoulders with the experience of “the mercy of God”, during a confession, and had “a divine revelation to enter into orders “, quotes AFP. In fact, on March 11, 1958, he began a novitiate in the Society of Jesus. He continued his spiritual formation in Chile, then returned to Buenos Aires in 1963 to study philosophy. The young man taught literature for a while in a college in Santa Fe and then in Buenos Aires. Jorge then studied theology at San Miguel. On December 13, 1969, Monsignor Ramon José Castellano, Archbishop of Cordoba, ordained him a priest.
In 1971 and 1972, the future Pope Francis did his Third Year (third year of formation for a Jesuit) in Alcala de Henares, Spain. He was then appointed novice master of the Colegio Maximo San José, a Jesuit institution in San Miguel, and on April 22, 1973, he made solemn profession. On July 31, 1973, he was appointed provincial (he has authority over the Jesuits and the ministries in his area) of the Jesuits of Argentina for six years. After the dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, he became rector of the faculty of theology and philosophy of San Miguel, while remaining professor of theology. At the same time, he was parish priest of Saint Joseph de San Miguel. Through his homilies, the future Pope Francis does a bit of politics, denouncing the corruption of politicians and the crisis of values in the country. Afterwards, he has problems with his order, because of his way of running the school. He therefore went to Germany, to Frankfurt, to write a thesis at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology of Sankt Georgen. Not being at ease, he returned to Argentina, where he became a neighborhood priest and confessor in Cordoba.
On May 20, 1992, the future Pope Francis was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires by Pope John Paul II, at the age of 55. On June 3, 1997, he was made coadjutor of the same archdiocese. The following year, on February 28, he became Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, following the death of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino. Then on February 21, 2001, he was instituted cardinal-priest by John Paul II with the title cardinalice, which linked him to the Roman clergy and in fact to the clergy of the pope, bishop of Rome, of San Roberto Bellarmino. In 2005, he would have been in the race to be elected pope, but the choice ultimately fell to Joseph Ratzinger, who became Benedict XVI. Cardinal Bergoglio is elected president of the drafting commission of the final document, called the “Aparecida Document”, during the V General Conference of the Latin American Episcopal Council which took place at the Sanctuary of Aparecida in Brazil, on May 15 2007. As president of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference, he made his “ad limina” visit (a visit that bishops must make every five years to Rome) on March 14, 2009. Jorge Bergoglio is also a member of the Congregation for institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, of the Congregation for the Clergy, of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and of the Pontifical Council for the Family, within the Roman Curia.
The role of the future Pope Francis in the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 in Argentina remains unclear. In 2005, the journalist and director of the daily “Pagina 12”, Horacio Verbitsky, published “El Silencio” and launched the controversy. Indeed, he accuses Jorge Mario Bergoglio of having collaborated with the junta and of not having tried to free Franz Jalics and Orlando Yorio, two Jesuits who were working under his orders at that time. The controversy is revived when Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected pope. The accusations are denied the next day by the Vatican Information Service. There are currently no documents that would link the pope with the military dictatorship, and then, according to the Vatican, numerous testimonies prove that Father Bergoglio protected these people. For Franz Jalics, one of the two Jesuits, after talking with Bergoglio and concelebrating a fraternal Mass, the story is over. Yet Pope Francis’ involvement is still controversial. But the sociologist from the University of Buenos Aires, Mallimacci Fortunato notably argued in the Argentinian press that “witnesses declared that Bergoglio not only did not fight against the dictatorship, but that he even contributed to the kidnapping , the torture or the disappearance of many priests and lay people”. Claims that have never been proven.
On February 11, 2013, Benedict XVI renounced his title as pope. On March 12, 2013, a conclave met to elect a new pope. The next day, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected, the traditional white smoke appears at 7:06 p.m., and the six bells of the basilica begin to ring. Pontificate under the sign of simplicity, he is the first pope to appear on the balcony without liturgical ornament. Located in the balcony of the Blessings Box in St. Peter’s Basilica, the new pope makes his first apostolic blessing “urbi et orbi” (“To the city and to the world”) and adds: “The cardinals went to get me at end of the world”. Then he prays for Benedict XVI, appointing him “bishop emeritus” and recites the “Our Father”, the “Hail Mary” and “Glory to the Father” in Italian. Finally, he asks the silence and a prayer for him before giving his blessing again. During his inaugural audience, he received Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the President of Argentina, who spoke to him about the situation with the United Kingdom, concerning Peter’s Square in the Vatican on March 19, 2013, Pope Francis receives the papal insignia and then performs his first “Inauguration Mass of the Bishop of Rome. Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople , is present for the first time since 1054 and the Great Eastern Schism.
The life of Pope Francis is marked by austerity, he gets up at 4:30 a.m. and ends his day at 9 p.m. The pope is described as a shy, humble, restrained man. A religious person who is not expansive, preferring modesty. He willingly shuns ostentation and is faithful to his great cause: poverty. Indeed, when he was appointed archbishop in 1998 in Argentina, the future pope favored life in a modest apartment rather than in a sumptuous palace, to which he was nevertheless entitled. He then travels by public transport. Likewise, when he was made a cardinal priest in 2001 by John Paul II, he simply went to this ceremony on foot. On this occasion, he refuses that his compatriots come to Rome and orders that the money collected to pay for the plane tickets be distributed to the poor. At Francisco Muniz Hospital in Buenos Aires, he washed the feet of twelve sick AIDS patients, telling the press that “society forgets the sick and the poor”. Moreover, during his career in Argentina, Jorge Bergoglio regularly traveled to the slums, in search of misery. He even settled there for a time, to support a priest threatened by drug traffickers. What quickly take the nickname of “pope of the poor”. These anecdotes also echo his first days as pope. Indeed, on the evening of his election, March 13, 2013, Pope Francis refused to get into a car with driver, preferring to slip into the minibus borrowed by the cardinals to go to the house of Saint Martha. The name chosen by the 266th pope, “Francis”, is not insignificant. It refers in particular to Saint Francis of Assisi, this monk of Italian origin who, from a wealthy family, had chosen poverty, mingling with lepers and going so far as to give alms.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio chooses to become a Jesuit. This means that he is part of the Society of Jesus, an obedience devoted to the papacy. To integrate this order, the studies are long. The future Pope Francis thus studied several subjects for fifteen years, including theology, philosophy and psychology. Ordained a priest in 1969, it was only at the age of 37 that he completed his initiatory journey, by pronouncing his last vow, that of allegiance to the pope. In accordance with the Jesuit tradition, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is therefore an intellectual. A scholar, who, in addition to French, English, Spanish and Portuguese, speaks fluent Italian, which is the language of his parents, but also German and of course Latin. In his free time, he likes to read the works of Jorge Luis Borges and Dostoyevsky, but also leafs through the press. He is also a fan of opera and football.
The “pope of the poor” is not a reformist pope. On many social issues, Pope Francis shares the positions of his predecessors, whether on the question of abortion, contraception, the ordination of women or homosexual marriage. Francis therefore appears as a conservative pope. Thus, when the bill on same-sex marriage was debated in Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio strongly opposed this reform, describing marriage between two people of the same sex as “anthropological backwardness”. He also stood up against the right granted to transsexuals to change their marital status in Argentina. Moreover, for the pope, abortion is an ethical issue and not a religious one. He is opposed to it, even in the case of rape, and considers that it is a deprivation of the “first of human rights”, that of life, and that “to abort is to kill someone helpless” and it is “never a solution”. Finally, he is also opposed to the marriage of priests, as well as that of married men who wish to become priests. Even though the matter has been debated for lack of priests in office, the pope is adamant it will not happen under his office. On these themes, the pontificate of Pope Francis does not adopt a revolutionary position. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, however, took a stand in 2012 against Argentine priests who refused to baptize children born out of wedlock, calling these priests “hypocrites”.
With the current power in Argentina, Pope Francis has maintained strained relations. Among its detractors is also part of British public opinion. Thus, in 2011, the future pope, taking a clear position in the conflict between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the Falklands, affirmed that “the Falklands belong to Argentina”. On March 30 and 31, 2019, for his 28th apostolic journey, the pope is visiting Morocco. Under the sign of hope, he responds to the invitation of King Mohammed VI, to discuss Islam and the issue of migration. After the interview, the holy man goes to the Imams Training Institute, which is a first for a pope in a 99% Muslim country, and its 30,000 to 35,000 Catholics. The last pope to visit Morocco was John Paul II in 1985.
Pope Francis also visited Madagascar in early September 2019. There he denounced excessive deforestation, corruption, exclusion and poverty, calling on the authorities to create jobs that respect the environment. Madagascar is indeed one of the poorest countries in the world, where 9 out of 10 people live on less than two dollars a day. He also visited Japan at the end of November 2019, a country he had wanted to see since his youth. For the Land of the Rising Sun, his message advocates nuclear disarmament: “Soon I will visit Nagasaki and Hiroshima where I will pray for the victims of the horrific bombardment of these two cities and I will echo your own prophetic calls for the nuclear disarmament”. He also prays for the victims of the March 2011 tsunami, and has a thought for the “hidden Christians” who transmitted the Catholic religion to each other, without a priest, for two centuries: “These ‘hidden Christians’ kept the faith for generations through baptism, prayer and catechesis! They are authentic domestic Churches that shone in this country, perhaps unknowingly, like a mirror of the family of Nazareth.”
In 2022, the question arose of a visit by the pope to Russia and Ukraine. On July 2, 2022 in an interview for Reuters, Pope Francis called the trip to Kyiv “possible”. In his eyes, the most important thing is to go to Russia “to try to help in one way or another”; he made it clear that he would like to “go to both capitals”. For those who multiply “appeals for peace”, while refusing to officially condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine so as not to ostracize Moscow, a visit to the two capitals would be a reinforcement of the peaceful symbolism that he wishes to advocate, without to be forced to take sides. No date has yet been communicated on this possible trip.
On December 1, 2019, Pope Francis publishes an apostolic letter “Admirabile signum” on the value of the nativity scene and its meaning. “The marvelous sign of the crib, so dear to the Christian people, always arouses astonishment and wonder”, such is the beginning of the pope’s letter. He describes the family tradition that one learns from childhood as “a living Gospel”, and hopes that this tradition “fallen into disuse, […] can be rediscovered and revitalized”. He also supports the fact of extending the installation of this custom to workplaces, schools, prisons, hospitals… The pope also welcomes the initiative of Saint Francis, who set up the first living nativity scene for Christmas in Greccio, in 1223.
Pope Francis is present on the social network Twitter, via the account @Pontifex. Its goals are to evangelize through tweets and to get closer to the youth. Each tweet is published in nine languages. In March 2016, he also took to Instagram as Franciscus and said, “I begin a new path, to walk with you the ways of God’s mercy and tenderness”.