The story that circulates among the journalists of the Vatican says that after Pope Francis was admitted to a hospital in Rome on Friday, the publishers of several large Italian newspapers began to be called frantically to verify the unfounded rumors according to which The pope was dead.
Rumors continued during the weekend, emerging from all the places, the most important song press room in Italy. On Tuesday, after announcing that the Pope had pneumonia, some Vatican journalists received texts from sources and colleagues suggesting that he was already dead.
“Rumors of self-eating that start to go out like that in an uncontrolled manner,” said Fabio Marche Ragona, the Vatican correspondent for the TG5 television news from Mediaset. “A circus that started last Friday.”
The Vatican has obviously refused to address rumors, some of which have made their way in the Italian media notoriously of origin, because he announced that Pope Francis, 88, had been hospitalized with bronchitis. Tuesday, this diagnosis had evolved towards pneumonia in the two lungs.
But the Vatican excludes information on the state of Francis if sparingly – saying on Wednesday that it seemed to be “stationary” – that he only reinforced the questions on the way he is to come and worthy of trust. Given the previous records of the Vatican obscure and opponent with regard to the health of a Pope – among others – a thick cloud of won skepticism remains.
The day after Pope John Paul II underwent a tracheotomy in 2005, the Vatican spokesperson then told journalists that he had appreciated a breakfast 10 cookies and a yogurt. John Paul died shortly after.
The doctors of the Policlinico A. Gemelli, where the Pope was hospitalized, were tight and access to the 10th floor of a wing, where the popes have a private sequel, is very limited. “It is easier to enter the Kremlin than the 10th floor,” said Dr. Diego Maria Nati, chief of the Red Cross for part of the Lazio region.
Keeping the information closely held is a tradition of the Vatican.
“The Holy See inherited its monarchical form with the idea that the health of the sovereign is a matter of the State and not a matter of the public”, like the British royal family or the Soviet leaders, said Alberto Melloni , historian of the Church and the director of the John XXIII Foundation for the religious sciences in Bologna. “So there has always been this instinct when it comes to covering the state of the Pope’s health.”
The initiates know that the Vatican operates in this opaque way, said Mr. Melloni. “It’s like in a family, where there is a certain decorum to maintain and certain things are simply not said,” he added.
For Roberto Rusconi, an expert in the history of Christianity, the Vatican tendency to obscure is partly a political decision, because the Pope is at the top of a huge power structure. But this also reflects a widespread state of mind in the Church, whether it is the health of the Pope or office abuse.
“There is an orientation so as not to be transparent; There is nothing to do, “he said.
Since Francis was hospitalized, the Vatican press office published two resolutely spare updates per day.
Generally, the Morning Bulletin gave a new superficial of how the Pope slept. Wednesday, the Vatican said: “The pope spent a peaceful night, he woke up and had breakfast.”
Evening bulletins have been more medical, sometimes more alarming, if it is always clear on details. Wednesday evening, the update said that Francis’ blood tests showed “a slight improvement, especially in inflammatory clues”. He added that after breakfast, Francis read certain newspapers: “Then his work activities with his closest collaborators.”
Francis was visited Wednesday afternoon by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said she wanted to take wishes for well-being in the Pope on behalf of the government and the nation.
“I am very happy to have found it alert and responsive,” the Prime Minister said in a statement. “We joked, as always. He has not lost his sense of proverbial humor. »»
The Vatican said that Francis was treated for a polymicrobial infection, which means that he has a mixture of microbes, such as a virus or bacteria, in his lungs or another part of his respiratory tract.
Doctors had to change his treatment more than once, but the Vatican did not specify the drugs he takes, beyond saying that he receives a cortisone antibiotic.
The medical bulletins that emerged from the Vatican were contrasting and naked and sometimes incredible, said Dr. Nati, chief of the Red Cross for part of the Lazio region.
There was no clear mention before Tuesday that a scanner and radiographs had been taken from the pope’s lungs, current examinations for people with respiratory problems from the pandemic, he said, adding, adding, adding, adding, adding, adding, adding, adding
“If it took four days to diagnose bilateral pneumonia, then misfortune to those who find themselves in Gemelli.”
In the case of the Pope, “people would like to know a little more, because many are concerned, so I would be a little more to appear,” he said.
Vatican defenders argue that many things have changed since the time of François’ predecessors – Pope John Paul II was clearly in difficulty before the Vatican is officially addressed to the question – and has become a lot more transparent.
Vatican declarations lastly note the reason each time Francis lacks a meeting or an audience, including the Appearance of bronchitis February 6.
However, people were caught by surprise when the Vatican announced a Sunday afternoon in July 2021 that Francis had been taken to Gemelli hospital for a “programmed surgery” to make a part of his colon be removed.
THE advertising brutality Highted eyebrows and suspicion at the time.
Francis himself has become more to come on his health, speaking openly about his bad knee and his sciatica, a chronic nervous condition which causes pain with hip, hip and legs and which forced him to use A wheelchair, a cane or a walker.
In 2023, he was hospitalized in Gemelli for what the Vatican said he was a respiratory infection. Francis later admitted that he had “acute and severe pneumonia in the lower lungs”, telling journalists on a Return flight from Hungary that he had been transported urgently to hospital.
But in a world where the truth is rare, some say that even if the Vatican should be more to come, it would not be believed.
“Even if they have published two official bulletins per day, with clear information, there would always be people who say:” No, look, what the Vatican says is a lie. The truth is that he is already dead, ” said Marchese Ragona.