deceleration
A Jesuit who seems happiest in the flock, Francis continues to travel abroad and maintain a busy schedule.
However, he admitted that knee pain has forced him to use a wheelchair and walking stick over the past year, and he had to slow down last summer.
He said on Thursday that he was “touched by the many messages” he received at the hospital and thanked those who are praying for his recovery on Twitter.
Among them is President Joe Biden, the second Catholic president in US history.
Biden tweeted: “Jill and I send our prayers to Pope Francis and wish him a speedy and complete recovery.
“The world needs Pope Francis.”
Francis spent 10 days in the same Rome hospital in July 2021 for colon surgery after suffering from a form of diverticulitis, an inflammation of the pockets that occur in the lining of the intestine.
In an interview in January, His Holiness said he had a recurrence of diverticulitis.
Francis has repeatedly said he would consider resigning if his health required it, following the example of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
The German theologian, who died on December 31 last year, shocked the world when he became the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign in 2013.
But Francis cautioned that the Pope’s resignation should not be commonplace, and said in a February interview that the idea is not currently on his agenda.
