Pope returns to Gemelli Hospital for tests, Vatican says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis visited Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on March 29 for “some previously scheduled tests,” the Vatican press office said, without providing further details.

In a late January interview with The Associated Press, Pope Francis said the diverticulitis, or bulges in his intestinal wall, had “come back,” but he insisted he was in good health for his age. who is 86 years old.

Pope Francis spent 10 days at Gemelli Hospital in July 2021 after undergoing a three-hour surgery that included a left hemicolectomy, which is the removal of the descending part of the colon, a surgery that may be recommended for treat diverticulitis.

Three days after the operation, the Vatican said “final histological examination confirmed severe diverticular stenosis with signs of sclerosing diverticulitis,” a hardening of the tissues. The statement seemed to indicate that the biopsy showed no cancerous cells, although it did not say so explicitly, and rumors began.

Asked by the Reuters news agency in July 2022, the pope was asked about rumors that doctors had discovered cancer.

According to Reuters, Pope Francis laughed and said, “They didn’t tell me about it. They didn’t tell me anything.

But, really, he said, “they explained everything to me well – period.”

The cancer rumor, he said, “is court gossip. The court spirit is still there in the Vatican. And if you think about it, the Vatican is the last European court of an absolute monarchy.

Copyright © 2023 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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