Angelus News | June 30, 2023 | Vol. 8 No 13

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POPE WATCH The pope’s ‘saints next door’ Pope Francis was released from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital June 16 after spending more than a week recovering from a hernia surgery. Shortly after his general audience June 7, the 86-year-old pope was taken to the Rome hospital where he underwent a three-hour abdominal surgery that involved placing a surgical mesh to prevent the recurrence of a hernia and the removal of several adhesions, which were bands of scar tissue formed after previous surgeries decades ago. Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the chief surgeon operating on the pope, said after the operation that the pope had no complications and responded well to the general anesthesia he was administered during this surgery and the one in 2021 that removed part of his colon. The surgeon had also operated on the pope in 2021. He underscored that, in both operations, all affected tissue had been benign. “The pope does not have other illnesses,” he said. On the advice of his doctors, Francis did not publicly pray the Sunday Angelus from the balcony of Gemelli Hospital during his stay. According to Vatican News, Francis underwent an appendectomy around 1950 and another surgery in 1980 to remove his gallbladder. Those are in addition to the surgery he underwent in 1957 when a piece of his lung was removed. In 2021, he spent 10 days at Gemelli after surgery that included the removal of the descending part of his colon to treat diverticulitis. During his hospitalization, the Vatican released a copy of a letter from Francis in response to a note sent to him by nurses and staff who work in the hospital’s pediatric neuropsychiatry ward. In the typewritten letter dated June 10 addressed to the nurses and staff who work in the hospital’s pediatric neuropsychiatry ward, the pope told them they were “saints next door” and an example of the Church as “field hospital.” He recognized the trauma they experience — and wrote to him about — in seeing some of their young patients die and the suffering it causes the deceased child’s loved ones. “You are witnesses of life as well as death, and so you are called to give comfort and consolation during those last minutes, accompanying these little ‘angels’ to the threshold of their encounter with the Lord,” he said. The pope spent part of June 15 visiting children in the pediatric oncology and neurosurgery ward located on the same floor as the private suite of rooms set aside for the pope. He greeted the young patients, who were among those who had sent him letters, drawings, and gifts wishing him a speedy recovery, and he gave each of them a rosary and book, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office. Francis witnessed firsthand “the pain of these children, who carry, together with their mothers and fathers, the suffering of the cross on their shoulders every day,” Bruni wrote. Upon his release from the hospital, Alfieri expressed confidence that the pope would be able to undertake planned trips to Portugal and Mongolia later this summer. “The pope is fine,” said the doctor. “He’s better than before.” Reporting courtesy of the Catholic News Service Rome bureau. Papal Prayer Intentions for June: We pray that the international community may commit in a concrete way to ensuring the abolition of torture and guarantee support to victims and their families. 4 • ANGELUS • June 30, 2023
’ NEW WORLD OF FAITH ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ Called to love with the heart of Jesus On the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Archbishop Gomez celebrated Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for more than 2,000 faithful, beginning a day of Catholic prayer in response to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision to honor a group that insults God and the Catholic faith. The following is adapted from his homily. For more coverage, see Pages 24–25 of this issue. tells us today in the Second Reading. And we believe that Jesus calls us to spend our lives on earth spreading the good news of his love. Those words that Moses speaks in the First Reading today — this is our message: “The Lord set his heart on you … the Lord loved you.” Catholics share God’s love not only in our words and worship. We prove our love through works of charity and prisoner, the unborn, the immigrant. We do this because we are Catholics, and we are called to love with the heart of Jesus. Listen again to the Lord’s words in today’s Gospel: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” At every turn in his earthly life, Jesus rejected the temptation to violence. When one of his disciples raised his We gather on this solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus to celebrate the beauty of God’s love and pray that our hearts might be conformed to his, which burns with love for all people. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was pierced by a Roman soldier, as Our Lord hung on the cross, is the most perfect sign of God’s love for each and every one of us. Out of his pierced heart flows the living waters that make us clean, the Precious Blood that redeems us from our sins, and sets us free. The Sacred Heart is personal. His heart is for you and for me. His Sacred Heart is opened for every one of our neighbors. From out of his Sacred Heart, Jesus speaks to every human heart, saying, “This is how much I love you, this is how much you are worth to me.” One of the saints said, “Love can only be repaid with love.” That is true. We can repay his love, only by loving Jesus as he has loved us. This is what it means to be Catholic. The Catholic religion is the religion of love. We believe that God is love, and he has opened his heart to reveal himself to us in Jesus Christ, just as St. John Catholics prove our love through works of charity and mercy for all men and women. We prove our love by working for peace and justice for every person. mercy for all men and women. We prove our love by working for peace and justice for every person. That is why so many of us are offended by the decision to honor a group that insults Jesus and mocks Catholic believers. Religious freedom and respect for the beliefs of others are hallmarks of our nation. When God is insulted, when the beliefs of any of our neighbors are ridiculed, it diminishes all of us. When we reward such acts, it hurts our unity as one city and one nation, as one family under God. Our religious sisters, our priests and deacons, our Catholic laypeople and consecrated men and women — they are serving selflessly in our communities, every day. Wherever there is human need and human suffering, Catholics are there. We are teachers and healers. We are advocates for those our society neglects — the poor, the homeless, the sword to fight for him, Jesus said, “No more of this.” Jesus was meek and humble of heart. Jesus gave his Church the mission to proclaim the good news of his love to every human heart, to the ends of the earth, until the day he returns. That is our mission as Catholics. So, my brothers and sisters, on this great feast, let us go to Jesus and learn from him. Let us ask him to make our hearts more like his own. Jesus commands us to forgive those who trespass against us, and to pray for those who persecute us. And he taught us to oppose what is wrong and ugly, with what is beautiful and true. Just as he did. We ask him today to give us the strength to do that. We entrust our lives, and our city and country, to the tender heart of holy Mary, the mother of God and the mother of each of us. Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, pray for us! June 30, 2023 • ANGELUS • 5
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Angelus News | June 30, 2023 | Vol. 8 No 13

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