Since his hospitalization, Francis has received almost no visits. In his hospital room, Vatican sources say, he’s surrounded by a few trusted people.
Being treated for a serious respiratory infection, the Argentine pontiff alternates between rest, prayer, therapy, and a few activities such as reading and signing documents, or even checking his mail (and calling the parish in Gaza). For the rest, all his official appointments have been canceled.
During his medical isolation, he has only received the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as well as the “numbers 2 and 3” of the Vatican: the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, Mgr Edgar Peña Parra. He has received these cardinals on at least two occasions.
His trusted nurse
The Pope is surrounded by his medical staff on a daily basis. Among them is his trusted nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, who has been the “personal health assistant to the Holy Father” since 2022. This Italian, who is very close to the Pope, distinguished himself during the Pontiff’s colon operation in July 2021 — so much so that the Pope declared that he had “saved his life.”
In an interview with the Spanish radio station COPE, Francis said: “He told me: ‘You need to have surgery.’ There were other opinions: ‘It’s better with antibiotics …’ but the nurse explained it to me very well. He’s a nurse from here, from our health service, from the Vatican hospital. He has been here for 30 years, and he’s a very experienced man.”
Strappetti, who had already assisted John Paul II and Benedict XVI, worked in the intensive care unit of the Gemelli Polyclinic before joining the Vatican Medical Service.
Doctors from the Vatican and from Gemelli Hospital
Since February 14, the Santa Marta medical team, whose lead doctor is Luigi Carbone, has been collaborating with the Gemelli team, coordinated by the surgeon Sergio Alfieri. The latter had already supervised the Pope’s operation for an intestinal hernia in June 2023.
The Pope’s secretaries
The other rare individuals to have regular access to the Pope’s room are said to be his three private secretaries, Argentinians Daniel Pellizzon and Juan Cruz Villalón and Italian Fabio Salerno. The first two are priests whom the Pontiff has known since Buenos Aires: Jorge Mario Bergoglio ordained Father Cruz Villalón in 2011, and Father Pellizzon helped him organize his personal archives in 2011-2012.
The papal security team
At the Gemelli, the head of the Catholic Church is also protected by his personal security team. Gendarmes — and no doubt Swiss guards — in civilian clothes monitor the area around the medical apartment, filtering the passage of patients.
No information has leaked about possible private visits from the Pope’s relatives. We know, for example, that one of his nephews, also a Jesuit, José Luis Narvaja, often comes to Rome. This is in part because he teaches at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, among other places.
The Pope’s cousin from Piedmont, Carla Rabezzana, whom the Argentine pontiff visited in 2022, has expressed her “great concern” to the Italian media.
The Holy Father has only one living sibling, María Elena Bergoglio, who lives in Argentina. She is 12 years younger than the Pope, but also has various health problems and lives in a residence run by nuns outside Buenos Aires.
