Pope Francis was to undergo Wednesday an operation on a painful abdominal hernia, reviving concerns over the 86-year-old's increasingly fragile health.
Francis looked in good spirits as he led his weekly general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, waving to the gathered crowds as he did a round of St Peter's Square in his popemobile.Francis is suffering from an incisional hernia, which can form over a scar from a previous surgery, the Vatican said.
In the meantime, all the pope's audiences have been cancelled "as a precautionary measure" until June 18, the Vatican press office told AFP.The pope had briefly visited the Gemelli on Tuesday for what the Vatican called "clinical tests". In July 2021, he underwent surgery at Gemelli for a type of diverticulitis, an inflammation of small bulges or pockets that can develop in the lining of the intestine.