As I write, it is 3 pm Rome time.
Pope Francis’ surgery is this afternoon. He may be in surgery at this very moment, we do not know. We do not know the exact time the operation began. Barring unforeseen circumstances and/or complications, it may take several hours. Once in recovery, the doctors will monitor the Holy Father for a while before making any kind of statement to the media. Gemelli hospital is preparing an area that will be dedicated to the media for press conferences. It is possible that the first hospital bulletin might come only in early evening.
We now know, of course, that Pope Francis’ brief visit to Gemelli yesterday probably included some preparatory tests for today’s surgery. That Tuesday visit was not first anounced by the Holy See Press Office but by the Italian news agency, ANSA. The Vatican later only confirmed that first report.
Stay tuned…..
POPE FRANCIS TO UNDERGO SURGERY THIS AFTERNOON
Holy See Press Office (June 7):
“At the end of the General Audience, the Holy Father went to the A. Gemelli University Hospital where in the early afternoon he will undergo a surgical operation of laparotomy and plastic surgery of the abdominal wall with prostheses under general anesthesia.
“The operation, arranged in recent days by the medical team assisting the Holy Father, became necessary due to an incarcerated incisional hernia that is causing recurring, painful and worsening sub-occlusive syndromes.
“The stay at the health facility will last several days to allow for the normal post-operative course and full functional recovery.”
POPE TO WRITE AN APOSTOLIC LETTER ON ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX
Pope Francis began today’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square by announcing that he will write an apostolic letter on Therese of Lisieux for the 150th anniversary of her birth in 1873.
He said, “Here before us are the relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, universal patroness of missions. It is good that this happen while we are reflecting on the passion for evangelization, on apostolic zeal. Today, then, let us allow the witness of St. Therese to help us. She was born 150 years ago, and I plan to dedicate an Apostolic Letter to her on this anniversary.”
Relics of the saint this Pope so loves, as well as those of her parents, whom Francis canonized as a couple in 2015, were on the stage next to the Holy Father this morning
Vatican news began its story with the Pope’s words: “Let us imitate the ‘Little Way’ of St. Therese, by doing even the littlest of things, like the Lord did, with great love.
With this sentiment, Pope Francis described St. Therese of Lisieux, patroness of the missions, at his weekly general audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square, as he continued his catechesis series on saints who personified apostolic zeal.
Recalling that the beloved saint was born 150 years ago, on January 2, 1873, the Pope expressed his plan to dedicate an Apostolic Letter to her on the anniversary.
“She is patroness of the missions, but she was never sent on mission,” the Pope said, as he challenged the conventional notion of what constitutes being a missionary.
Therese was a Carmelite nun who lived her life according to the way of littleness and weakness, the Pope explained, recalling she defined herself as “a small grain of sand.” Having poor health, she died at the age of only 24. But though her body was sickly, he suggested, “her heart was vibrant and missionary.”
The Holy Father pointed out how she recounts in her “diary” that her desire was that of being a missionary, “and that she wanted to be one not just for a few years, but for the rest of her life, even until the end of the world.”
Her daily resolution, the Pope highlighted, was to “make Jesus loved,” and to intercede for others.
Spending Heaven doing good on earth
In a letter, she had written, “I want to save souls and forget myself for them: I want to save them even after my death.”
“Several times she said, ‘I will spend my Heaven doing good on earth.’”
Following the example of Jesus the Good Shepherd, the Pope noted, her zeal was directed especially toward sinners, to “those far off.”
He recalled she served as a “spiritual sister” to several missionaries, accompanying them from her monastery through her letters, her prayer, and by offering continuous sacrifices for them. “Without being visible,” he recalled, “she interceded for the missions, like an engine that, although hidden, gives a vehicle the power to move forward.”
He lamented that she was often not understood by her fellow nuns.
“She received ‘more thorns than roses’ from them,” he observed, “but she accepted everything lovingly, patiently, offering even these judgments and misunderstandings together with her illness. And she did this joyfully, for the needs of the Church, so that, as she said, ‘roses might fall on everyone,” especially the most distant.'”
Revisiting idea of ‘missionary’
This intercession moved by charity, the Pope highlighted, is very powerful. “Such is the engine of mission!”
Missionaries, Pope Francis clarified, are not only those who travel long distances, learn new languages, do good works, and are good at proclamation. “No,” he said.
“A missionary is anyone who lives as an instrument of God’s love where they are. Missionaries are those who do everything so that, through their witness, their prayer, their intercession, Jesus might pass by.”
This apostolic zeal, the Pope warned, “never works by proselytism or constraint,” but “by attraction.”
Attracting with Jesus’ love
“One does not become a Christian because they are forced by someone, but because they have been touched by love.”
With so many means and structures available, the Pope acknowledged, “the Church needs hearts like Therese’s,” namely ones “that draw people to love and bring people closer to God.”
He warned against losing track of this essential aspect.
Pope Francis concluded by encouraging faithful to let us ask St. Therese “for the grace to overcome our selfishness and for the passion to intercede that Jesus might be known and loved.”
Joan's Rome 