![](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/06/16/07/Vatican_Pope_who%27s_In_Charge_53446.jpg?width=1200&auto=webp)
Pope Francis has been discharged from the Rome hospital where he had abdominal surgery nine days earlier to repair a hernia and remove painful scarring.
Francis, 86, left in a wheelchair, smiling and waving and saying “thanks” to a crowd of well-wishers, then stood up so he could get into the small Vatican car awaiting him.