Pope gives first general audience since surgery

Pope Francis gave a general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday, his first since undergoing abdominal surgery to repair a hernia earlier this month.

He last appeared before crowds in St Peter’s Square on June 7, before heading straight to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for the operation.

Pope Francis thanked the faithful for their presence despite the heat.

“Today we have to be a little patient with this heat and thank you for coming in this heat, in this sunshine, thank you,” the Pope said.

He went on to denounce the injustice of poverty, with money being spent “on arms and not on meals”.

The poor are at the center because “they are the ones who draw attention to this great injustice that is the poverty of the world,” said the pope.

Francis also urged the faithful to continue to pray for “the dear people of Ukraine, that they might soon find peace again”.

“There is so much suffering in Ukraine, let us not forget this,” he said.

Francis was discharged from hospital on June 16 and the Vatican confirmed his subsequent private audiences and the Angelus prayer and blessing on June 18, but said the general audience of June 21 had been cancelled “to safeguard the Holy Father’s post-operative recovery”.