Pope Francis is “in good condition, alert and breathing on his own” a day after he underwent a three-hour operation, which involved removing half his colon, the Vatican has said.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni also said on Monday that Francis is expected to stay in Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic, a Catholic hospital, for about seven days “barring complications”.
The brief medical bulletin contained the first details the Vatican released, coming more than 12 hours after the end of Sunday’s surgery.
The procedure was necessitated by what the Holy See said was a diverticular stenosis, or narrowing the pope’s sigmoid portion of the large intestine.
An earlier written statement, which came shortly before midnight on Sunday, was notable for its scarcity of medical detail.
The 84-year-old pontiff was taken to hospital just hours after he greeted the public in St Peter’s Square, in keeping with a Sunday tradition.
He told them he will go to Hungary and Slovakia in September.
Francis is in generally good health, but did have part of one lung removed as a young man. He also suffers from sciatica, occasionally having painful bouts of the condition that involves a nerve affecting the lower back and leg.
