Pope Francis is discharged from the A. Gemelli University Hospital on Saturday morning.
By Vatican News staff reporter
Pope Francis was released from the Gemelli Hospital on Saturday morning after a brief hospital stay that involved scheduled tests and treatment for bronchitis.
In a brief statement on Saturday morning, the Holy See Press Office noted that, before his departure, the Holy Father greeted the hospital management, including Franco Anelli, Rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart; Marco Elefanti, General Director of the Polyclinic; and the General Ecclesiastical Assistant of the hospital, Monsignor Claudio Giuliodori, as well as the medical and health team that assisted him during his convalescence.
The Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic, the largest hospital in Rome, is the teaching hospital of the Catholic University’s medical faculty. The hospital is named after the Franciscan friar Agostino Gemelli, a physician and psychologist, who was also the founder and first rector of the University.
Leaving the hospital, Pope Francis stopped his car briefly to greet those present, pausing for a moment to hug and pray with a couple who had lost their daughter overnight.
Visit to Santa Maria la Mayor
The Holy Father then went to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he prayed before the icon of Mary, Salus Populi Romani, for all the sick and those suffering from illness or loss of loved ones. He prayed in a special way for the children he met yesterday in the hospital’s pediatric oncology and children’s neurosurgery ward, entrusting them to the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin.
