Timeline of Pope Francis’ health

With Pope Francis now on his fourth day of hospitalization, we offer a retrospective of the health-related events the 88-year-old pontiff has experienced throughout his life.

December 17, 1936: Birth of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires.

1957: At the age of 21, Jorge Mario Bergoglio suffers from a serious respiratory illness while in his second year of seminary. With three cysts in his right lung and pleural effusion, he undergoes surgery to remove the upper right lobe of his lung. This major operation leaves him with a large permanent scar across half his chest, but he makes full recovery. “I’ve never felt tired or short of breath,” he later says in various interviews.

2004: In the essay La salud de los papas, by the Argentinean journalist and doctor Nelson Castro (published in 2021), Pope Francis reveals that in 2004, when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had a heart problem, a “pre-infarction.” He was hospitalized for a few days. He reports never having had any more cardiac symptoms.

January 1, 2021: Painful sciatica forces Pope Francis to cancel several liturgical celebrations and to postpone the traditional address to the diplomatic corps.

March 2021: The pontiff shows signs of fatigue after his trip to Iraq from March 5 to 8. “I will confess that on this trip I was more tired than on the others,” he tells reporters at a press conference on the plane back to Rome.

July 4, 2021: A few hours after the traditional Angelus prayer pronounced from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the Holy See announces that the pontiff has been hospitalized at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome. Pope Francis, we learn, is undergoing surgery for “diverticular stenosis of the colon,” a common operation for a person of his age but one that can be delicate from a surgical point of view.

July 11, 2021: Francis, who has been hospitalized for 10 days at Gemelli, recites the Sunday Angelus from the balcony of the facility. This hospitalization raises concerns and much speculation about the state of health of the head of the Catholic Church, with some even going so far as to describe this period as “pre-conclave.”

August 30, 2021: In an interview with the Spanish radio station COPE, the pontiff acknowledges the extent of the operation he underwent two months earlier. He said that he could now “eat anything,” but that this had not been possible for some time and that he was still on post-operative medication, “because the brain has to register that it has 33 centimeters less intestine,” he emphasized. However, he said that he was leading a “completely normal life.”

January 2022: From the beginning of the year, the Pope repeatedly mentions pain “in his right leg” to the guests he received at the Vatican. At the end of the general audience on January 26, he apologizes for not being able to walk among the faithful to greet them as he usually does. The pontiff explains that “I have a problem with my right leg: a ligament in my knee has become inflamed.”

February 27, 2022: Suffering from “acute knee pain,” the head of the Catholic Church has to cancel his participation in the Meeting of Bishops and Mayors of the Mediterranean in Florence on February 27. He also decides not to preside at the Ash Wednesday celebrations on March 2. The Argentine pontiff's doctor prescribes “a period of rest” and injections for his knee.

April 2, 2022: During his trip to Malta, the Pope is obliged for the first time to use an elevator to get on and off the plane. Starting in the month of May, we will see Pope Francis in a wheelchair — a first for the pontificate.

June 10, 2022: The Press Office announces that the Pope is forced to postpone his trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan scheduled for July 2 to 7, in order “not to compromise the results of the knee therapies still in progress.” This is the first time that Pope Francis has postponed a trip abroad for health reasons.

June 19, 2022: Still due to his knee problems, Francis is unable to celebrate Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Rumors of resignation intensify, as do suspicions of more serious illnesses, especially since the Pope has just convened a consistory to create new cardinals at the end of the summer.

He also announces that he wants to go to Aquila, the city of Celestine V, the last pope to have freely stepped down before the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013. But he tells a group of Brazilian bishops on June 20, “I want to live out my mission as long as God allows me to.”

July 4, 2022: In an interview with Reuters, the 85-year-old pope dismisses rumors that cancer was discovered during his operation in July 2021, calling them “court gossip.” The operation was “a great success,” he says, but adds that he doesn’t want to have knee surgery because the general anesthetic has negative side effects. Finally, after a period of rest, the pontiff is able to travel to Canada from July 24 to 30 and to Kazakhstan and Bahrain in the fall.

January 24, 2023: In an interview with the American press agency AP, the Pope admits that the diverticulitis from which he had undergone surgery in 2021 “has returned.” “I might die tomorrow, but it’s under control. I’m in good health,” the head of the Catholic Church said.

March 29, 2023: The Holy See announces that Pope Francis is in hospital, stating in an initial statement that these examinations were scheduled. In fact, the Pope was rushed by ambulance for emergency treatment for infectious bronchitis. “They told me, 'We caught it in time, and if we had waited a few more hours, it would have been more serious,'” he said a few weeks later on Mexican television. After a course of antibiotics, he left the hospital on April 1, rejoicing that he was "still alive."

April 7, 2023: Due to the cold, Pope Francis decides not to attend the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum.

June 7, 2023: The Vatican announces that the Pope has been admitted to Gemelli Hospital to undergo surgery for an intestinal hernia with risk of obstruction. The Vatican press office, which had drawn sharp criticism from the media for its “manipulation” during the March episode, changed tack and played the transparency card. Detailed and regular press releases and post-operative press conferences with the surgeon Sergio Alfieri marked these 10 days of hospitalization.

June 11, 2023: For the first time in his pontificate, Francis suspends the celebration of the Sunday Angelus in public, in order to observe the rest prescribed by his medical team. He is discharged from the hospital on June 16. During the summer, he attends World Youth Day in Lisbon and visits Mongolia and then Marseille in September.

November 1, 2023: Interviewed by Italian television, the head of the Catholic Church is reassuring about his state of health. “Now I feel very well, I can eat anything,” he says.

November 25, 2023: Suffering from lung inflammation, the Pope has to make a return trip to Gemelli Hospital, where he undergoes a scan “to rule out the risk of pulmonary complications.”

End of November 2023: Pope Francis has to lighten his schedule due to his lung inflammation. Under antibiotic treatment, he celebrates two Angelus prayers in his chapel at Casa Santa Marta, and not in St. Peter's Square as he usually does from the window of the Apostolic Palace. The pontiff, clearly weakened, also delegates the reading of his Angelus meditations and general audience.

November 28, 2023: At the request of his doctors, Francis cancels his trip to Dubai, where he was to go for the COP28 from December 1 to 3. On several occasions during subsequent audiences, notably on November 30, the 266th pope admits that speaking is difficult for him.

January 12, 2024: The year begins with a new bout of respiratory illness. “I would like to read the entire address, but I am having a bit of a problem with bronchitis, and I cannot speak very well,” he explains when receiving communicators from the Church of France.

January 29, 2024: In an interview with La Stampa, Pope Francis acknowledges “some minor health issues.” “But now I'm better, I'm fine,” he says. He claims not to be thinking about his resignation: “It doesn't worry me. If and when I can't do it anymore, I may start to think about it. And to pray about it.”

February 24, 2024: Suffering from a mild case of the flu, Pope Francis is once again forced to cancel several audiences.

March 29, 2024: Weakened by a persistent respiratory infection, the Pope cancels at the last moment his visit to the Colosseum where he was to attend the traditional Stations of the Cross. The official reason is to “preserve his health” in anticipation of the Easter celebrations — which he will carry out as planned.

September 2 to 13, 2024: The pope makes the longest trip of his pontificate, visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore and spending 44 hours on the plane. He amazes many observers with his robustness.

December 6, 2024: Pope Francis falls against his bedside table in his apartment at the Vatican's Santa Marta residence. The following day, a large bruise appears on the pope's face at the bottom of his chin. The head of the Catholic Church maintains his audiences, including the consistory on December 7.

January 16, 2025: The 88-year-old pope falls again in his residence of Santa Marta and hurts his right arm — which, however, is not broken. His arm is immobilized as a precaution, but the pope honors his official engagements.

February 9, 2025: During a Mass in St. Peter's Square for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, the Pope apologizes to the crowd for having to delegate the reading of his homily due to “difficulty in breathing.” This new episode of respiratory illness had been going on for several days.

On February 5, the pontiff had told the faithful at the general audience that he had a “bad cold,” and the next day, the Holy See Press Office announced that he had contracted “bronchitis.” This illness was forcing him to receive his guests at his residence in Santa Marta, and not at the Apostolic Palace as usual.

February 14, 2025: Pope Francis is interned in the hospital for tests and treatment for his bronchitis. His commitments for the next several days are cancelled.