Pope Francis to stay in hospital for ‘few days’ with respiratory infection

health condition

About 1.4 billion Roman Catholic leaders worldwide suffer from diverticulitis, a condition that infects or inflames the colon, and underwent surgery to remove part of the colon in 2021 at Gemelli Hospital. .

He said in January that his symptoms had returned and that he had put on weight because of it, but said he wasn’t overly concerned.

Francis said in an interview with Reuters last year that he didn’t want to repeat the long-term negative side effects from anesthesia he suffered after surgery in 2021, so he didn’t want to undergo the cumbersome knee surgery.

Last July, after returning from a trip to Canada, Francis admitted that aging and walking difficulties may have ushered in a new late phase of the papacy.

Since then, however, he has visited Kazakhstan and Bahrain, and last month the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.

He also plans to visit Hungary in late April, Portugal in August and Marseille, France in September. He says he would like to fly from Marseille to Mongolia if it can be arranged.

After praising his deceased predecessor Benedict XVI’s historic decision to resign for health reasons in 2013Francis indicated that he would only follow his example if he was severely incapacitated.

In an interview with the Italian-Swiss television RSI aired on March 12, when asked what conditions would make him quit, he said: “It’s the fatigue of not being able to see things clearly. Clarity. Lack of knowledge, lack of knowing how to assess the situation.”