Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Resting after the intestinal surgery he underwent on June 7, Pope Francis was unable to look out of the window today for the customary Angelus service. But in his room on the 10th floor of the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, he privately prayed the Marian prayer, uniting himself spiritually "with affection and gratitude" with the faithful around the world who did the same on this Sunday.
The news that Francis would miss his Angelus appointment with the faithful today had already been announced yesterday by Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, along with updates on the pope's condition.
"The medical staff informs that the post-operative recovery continues to be regular," he wrote in a note. "All IVs have already been suspended in recent days and the Holy Father is feeding himself on a semi-liquid diet. Francis has no fever and the results of blood tests and X-rays he underwent are good. "He is being careful followed in his post operative recovery" Bruni explained, "aimed at the least strain on the abdominal wall, to allow the implanted prosthetic mesh and the repair of the muscle tissue to heal."
While scrupulously observing the rest prescribed by doctors, Francis nevertheless continues to get his message out to the world. He did so yesterday afternoon at the meeting of 30 Nobel laureates (including Yazidi Nadia Murad and Filipina Maria Ressa) gathered on the parvis of St. Peter's Basilica together with a group of young people from around the world for the "Not Alone" initiative on the theme of fraternity.
In the speech Francis had already prepared for the occasion and which was read by Card. Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of the Vatican basilica, he renewed the invitation not to tire "of crying out 'no to war,' in the name of God or in the name of every man and woman who aspires to peace." "In our world," he added further, "tweaks and adjustments are not enough: only a great spiritual and social alliance that springs from the hearts and revolves around fraternity can bring back to the center of relations the sacredness and inviolability of human dignity.
And this same horizon is also forcefully pointed out in a particular way to Christian politicians in a message to members of the People's Party Group in the European Parliament meeting in Rome these days. "I believe," the pope writes in this text released today, "that Christian politicians today should be recognized by their ability to translate the great dream of fraternity into concrete actions of good politics at all levels: local, national, international. For example: challenges such as that of migration, or that of caring for the planet, it seems to me that they can be addressed only from this great inspiring principle: human fraternity."
