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Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of Pope Francis’s medical team and a physician at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, has shared new insights into the pontiff’s final hours.
The 88-year-old Pope died peacefully on the morning of Easter Monday. Dr. Alfieri, who treated Francis during a recent bout of pneumonia, said in interviews published Thursday that the Pope passed quickly and without undue suffering.
“I received a call around 5:30 a.m. summoning me to the Vatican,” Dr. Alfieri told Corriere della Sera. “When I arrived about 20 minutes later, I found him conscious, with his eyes open, but unresponsive. I called his name—there was no reply. In that moment, I knew. He was in a coma. There was nothing more we could do.”
Attempts to move the Pope to the hospital were quickly ruled out. In a separate interview with La Repubblica, Dr. Alfieri said, “He would have died on the way. A CT scan might have given us a clearer diagnosis, but it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. It was one of those strokes that, in an hour, carries you away.”
Although Pope Francis had narrowly survived a serious case of pneumonia earlier this year, his passing still came as a shock. Just a day before his death, he was seen riding through St. Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile, smiling and waving to the crowds gathered for Easter Sunday.
After being discharged from Gemelli Hospital on March 23 following a 38-day stay, his doctors had advised two months of rest. But Francis, always dedicated to his mission, resumed work. On Easter Sunday, he met briefly with U.S. Vice President JD Vance. Days earlier, on Holy Thursday, he visited a prison in Rome to offer Easter blessings to inmates.
Despite his return to work, Dr. Alfieri said the Pope did not overexert himself. “He listened to us,” he said. “Going back to work was part of his healing. He was never in danger. He was the Pope—being present, doing his duty, that was essential to him.”
Dr. Alfieri last saw Francis on the Saturday before his death. “He was very well,” the doctor said. “I brought him some pie—his favorite kind. He smiled and told me, ‘I am very well. I have started working again, and I like it.’”
In his final conversation with Dr. Alfieri, Pope Francis expressed one lingering regret. He had hoped to perform the traditional Holy Thursday foot-washing ritual at the prison. “He told me, ‘This time I couldn’t do it,’” the doctor recalled. “That was the last thing he said to me.”
Dr. Alfieri concluded, “We knew he wanted to be the Pope until the very end. He didn’t let us down.”
