From Staff Reports

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the global charity Samaritan’s Purse (based in Boone, N.C.), underwent heart surgery on Nov. 8 at the Mayo Clinic.

“Franklin Graham successfully underwent a specialized heart surgery today at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,” Mark Barber, Graham’s spokesman, wrote in a statement to Fox News on Nov 9.

“In recent months, Franklin had developed constrictive pericarditis, inflammation, and hardening of the sac around the heart that compresses the heart and prevents it from working properly. The surgery involved removing the pericardium. 

“His doctors expect a full recovery and assured him that he should be able to return to his normal activity and ministry schedule,” Barber added. “Mr. Graham said that he is looking forward to multiple opportunities across the globe in 2022 to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invite people to put their faith in Him. He is also eager to resume riding his motorcycle by springtime. He and his family appreciate everyone’s prayers.”

Graham, 69, is an Asheville, N.C., native and the son of the late world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham and his wife Ruth. Franklin Graham became the president of Samaritan’s Purse in 1979 after the death of the organization’s founder, Bob Pierce. 

(Billy Graham died at age 99 in 2018, while Ruth died at age 87 in 2007. They lived in Montreat, just east of Ashevlle.)

Franklin Graham became the vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1995 and the CEO in 2000. 

Graham has strongly supported former President Donald Trump and suggested that Trump won in 2016 because “God showed up.”