Many will remember that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor a few weeks back. Well, a website has been set up to keep people abreast of his recovery. He had surgery several days ago at the Mayo Clinic, and his family reported:

The doc explained to us that based on the appearances of what he saw it was either a stage II tumor or a stage III tumor – perhaps right on the borderline. Either way there is a recommendation that there will be both chemotherapy and radiation applied to get the part of the tumor that was unable to be extracted by the surgery today. That seemed to be in line with exactly what John had told us after his first visit here so no real surprises there.
After speaking with the doctor, I became even more convinced that John is exactly where he needed to be for this complicated surgery and the follow up. If I had more information to give you I would but it seems that a lot of this will now be guided by the pathology report on the tissue that was extracted.

That was about a week ago. The latest, posted yesterday:

Happy St. Joseph Feast Day to everyone! Many probably do not know that St. Joseph is one of Fr. John’s patron saints. Fr. John’s full name is Fr. John Joseph Hollowell.

Fr. John celebrated the day with 4 full hours (spread out over the day) in the Mayo Clinic’s Generose Rehabilitation Hospital. This was John’s first full day there and – as predicted – they put him through the paces! He actively embraced every activity designed to help him regain all of his physical capacity and function. Diane thinks that far and away his favorite activity today was riding a stationary bike for 15 minutes or so. This was an exercise that he started doing within the past year and we think the familiarity with it boosted his enthusiasm for completing this session. Diane said he was very excited about the bike when he came back from it!

John’s verbal skills are coming back in a strong fashion today as well. He spoke with his parish secretary today in an extended and complex conversation regarding parish plans during the current coronavirus shutdown throughout the Archdiocese on Indianapolis. We know Fr. John is aching for us all and wants to be in the midst of serving God’s people during these trying times. John loves challenging situations and he relishes the opportunity to help people and communities find solutions to these problems that arise in the course of life. God bless all of those who are ministering to his parishes in his absence. Keep fighting the good fight – just as Fr. John is!! He will be back one day as strong or stronger than ever!

Tomorrow more speech therapy, more exercise, more manual manipulation work, more prayer time, more feeding himself nutritious food, more getting better and stronger! Thanks for lifting Fr. John up in your prayers and thanks for your prayers for those who have been victims of clergy sex abuse. May God’s mercy reign supreme on us all!!

Please continue to keep him and all those who love him in your prayers. And I’d encourage those who have followed his blog and social media writings to visit his website for regular updates from his family.