On the evening of July 4, Pope Francis entered the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome. That is the same hospital to which Pope St. John Paul II was famously rushed following his near fatal shooting in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.

 

Hours later, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had undergone a three hour operation to address serious intestinal issues. Subsequently, short daily updates have been released indicating that the 84 year-old Holy Father is recovering normally from this major surgery. 

 

Still, there has been significant concern expressed by many, especially because, at least to outsiders, there was no prior indication that the Holy Father was suffering any health problem that would hint at the need for such a radical medical treatment.

 

I would ask that each of us keep Pope Francis in mind daily in our prayers as he recovers in the days and weeks ahead. We should add specific and intentional prayers for him as part of our own embrace of the unity of the Church. 

 

By that I mean that even though we are thousands of miles distant from him, and most of us have never met him personally, we are still close to and united with Pope Francis because of the unique calling that is his. 

 

The Holy Father is the successor of Peter. It is part of our faith that when Jesus said to Simon “... you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18). 

 

That promise was not just for the few years of Peter’s life. The successive popes even to our own day are given the grace and the calling to pick up where those who bore that responsibility before them left off.

 

As faithful Catholics, our task is to be true to the words of Christ and to the Church. We adhere to the faith not only as expressed in our own day, but consistent with the faith of the Church of all time. That means that we must seek the whole truth of our Catholic faith, not simply the bits and parts that are most congenial to us or to our society. 

 

Our Catholic vision should lead us to ask ourselves if our faith truly is one with the Apostles and with saints like Ignatius of Antioch, Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc and Maximilian Kolbe, to name just a few.

By Christ’s word to Peter, as part of the mystery of the incarnation, Jesus has chosen one man at a time to serve as the touchstone, the center of unity in the Church. That is the fearful task entrusted to Pope Francis. 

 

In gratitude to him and his service, we should be praying daily for his recovery and most especially for his openness to God’s will in the later years of his life.

 

The illness of a pope also reminds us that we live out our faith in a particular circumstance of history. At each moment, the pressures, the temptations, the successes and even the persecutions of the Church are present. In that context popes are elected, they serve and then they are gone. 

 

For those who are old enough, they have seen Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.

 

None of them was meant in God’s plan to serve forever. Each of those men had different backgrounds, different personalities, and different emphases within the totality of the faith. Our task as faithful members of the Church is always to be united with each pope not as an individual but as the continuation of the Rock on which Christ has built the Church.

 

May God bless Pope Francis in this difficult hour and may he grant him health, strength and faith, for his good and for that of the Church.