Pope Francis signed the letter on June 9, two days after he underwent a three-hour surgery for an incisional hernia. A team of surgeons removed scar tissue and operated on a hernia in the pope’s abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said June 11 that Pope Francis’ “post-operative progress is normal.” He added that the pope watched Sunday Mass on television and received the Eucharist in his hospital room before praying the Angelus in the papal medical suite chapel and eating lunch with some hospital staff.
The 86-year-old pope is expected to remain recovering in Rome’s Gemelli hospital for the next week. The Vatican has canceled all of the pope’s audiences, including his Sunday Angelus address, until June 18.
In his message to the European People’s Party, the pope said that he views human fraternity as “the great inspiring principle” for tackling the challenges of migration and caring for the planet.
“I think that fraternity can also be a source of inspiration for those who want to re-animate Europe today so that it fully responds to the expectations of both its peoples and the whole world. Because a European project today can only be a global project,” Francis said.
The European People’s Party is a center-right political group in the European Union, made up of 40 parties across Europe, including Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, The Republicans of France, Forza Italia of Italy, the People’s Party in Spain, and Fine Gael of Ireland.
