Pope Francis currently has “no particular illnesses,” is “doing well consistent with his age,” and has the “head of a 60-year-old,” a doctor who has operated on him in recent years has said.
In a March 25 interview in Corriere della Sera, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, who operated on Pope Francis twice in the last three years, in July 2021 and June 2023, said the Pope “is doing well consistent with his age and his episodic breathing difficulties during colder periods, also due to previous lung surgery he underwent many years ago.”
“I don’t see him every day, but I can assure that he has no particular illnesses,” said the doctor, who is director of the department of surgery at Policlinico Gemelli in Rome. “He undergoes periodic checkups."
Alfieri, who is also clinical-scientific director of the Isola Tiberina-Gemelli Isola hospital where the Pope underwent a full-body CT scan on Feb. 28, added: “Imagine a gentleman close to 88 years old, recently operated twice on the abdomen and in the past on the lung and again on the abdomen. The first surgery with me was for complicated diverticular disease. In fact, diverticula are not always operated on, only if they are complicated. The second operation was for intestinal obstruction and laparocele [incisional hernia]."
Asked why he appears so fatigued in recent weeks, sometimes delegating the reading of the texts to collaborators, or declining to read his homily at Mass on Palm Sunday, Alfieri replied: “He is a man with responsibilities as head of state of the Vatican, required to make decisions. When he looks out of that window, he is addressing a billion and a half Catholics and more, which is not exactly the case for everyone his age.”
Alfieri added: “The Holy Father has the head of a 60-year-old and manages to stay ahead of us while continuing to govern the Vatican State smoothly, on his own.
“He has, however, as is normal, the aches and pains of an 87-year-old who generally would lead a quieter life and maybe stay home in front of the television. He certainly cannot easily do that. And, in fact, he does not skip an engagement, or almost doesn’t.”