Pope Francis “reacted well” to planned intestinal surgery Sunday evening at a Rome hospital, the Vatican announced.
In a statement late Sunday, a Holy See spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said the 84-year-old Francis had general anaesthesia during the surgery necessitated by stenosis or narrowing, of the sigmoid portion of the large intestine. This is the first time Pope Francis was hospitalised after he was elected in 2013.
In keeping with the Sunday tradition, the Pope, before surgery addressed thousands gathered at St Peter's Square.
During his address, the Pope said that he would go to Slovakia in September after celebrating Mass in Budapest, Hungary.
The Vatican hasn’t said for how long the Pope would remain at the Gemelli University Hospital, where he was being treated.
The Vatican said the pope had been diagnosed with “symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon,” a reference to a narrowing in the large intestine.
Francis is in generally good health but did have part of one lung removed as a young man.
-- With PTI inputs
