New book says pope’s life ‘was saved by a nun’

Andrea Tornielli, a veteran Vatican journalist, writes in her new book, “I Fioretti di Papa Francesco (The Little Flowers of Pope Francis),” that the life of Pope Francis was saved by nuns who worked in the hospital where the pontiff was ill as a young man.

“I am alive thanks to one of them,” the new book quoted Pope Francis as saying. “When I had lung problems in the hospital, the doctor gave me penicillin and antibiotics in small doses.

“The nun who was on the ward tripled that because she had an intuition, she knew what to do, because she was with the ill all day long,” the pope said.

“The doctor, who was very good, spent his time in a laboratory, but the nun was living on the front line and talking with those on the front line every day.”

Pope Francis’s historic lung illness drew questions when he was in the spotlight after his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI resigned due to his failing health and inability to handle the job.

The pontiff reportedly had three cysts on his lung before part of it was removed and fresh concerns were raised about the health of the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio when the 76-year-old was elected in March this year.

At the time, Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. “This is not a handicap in his life. Those who know him have always seen him in good health.” Pope Francis is due to celebrate his 77th birthday next week and the book’s author, Andrea Tornielli, said on Sunday that the pope was currently in very good health.

Sources

AP/The Telegraph
The Daily Mail
The Independent
Image: Reuters/The Telegraph

Additional reading

News category: World.

Tags: ,