The head of the Catholic Church spent about ten days in hospital for a colon operation.Pope Francis left the hospital and was able to return to his small apartment in Vatican City on Wednesday. Aged 84, the pontiff has displayed since his election in 2013, an iron health. He will continue to rest until the beginning of the school year.
Taking a seat in the front of a car with tinted windows, the 84-year-old pontiff left late morning the Gemelli University Hospital where he was convalescing after undergoing colon surgery on July 4.
The 84-year-old Argentine pontiff left the Gemelli University Hospital in a car with tinted windows, where he had undergone a “left colectomy” under general anesthesia, a surgery to remove a portion of the colon.
On Tuesday, the Pope’s spokesman said that Francis would return to the Vatican “as soon as possible”, without specifying a date. The Holy See had initially counted on “about a week” of hospitalization, “barring complications.
It had released Tuesday evening photos of the pope walking in a section of the hospital dedicated to sick children.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the pope had returned shortly before noon to the residence of St. Martha where he occupies a modest two-room apartment of 50 m2 in Vatican City, after stopping at the Roman Basilica of St. Mary Major before an icon of the Virgin, as a sign of thanks “for the success of his operation” and to pray “for all the sick.
