Pope Francis has promoted a nurse who he said saved his life last year to his personal health assistant, the Holy See announced in a short statement on Thursday. In the summer of 2021, Massimiliano Strappetti, an employee of the Vatican’s medical service and coordinator for nursing, convinced the then 84-year-old pope to undergo intestinal surgery for severe abdominal pain. Strappetti had thus saved his life, Francis said at the time in an interview after the operation. What exactly his new role will entail wasn’t specified in Thursday’s statement. The head of the Catholic Church already has a…