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Pope John Paul II named the hospital ‘Vatican III’ and quipped that it ranked third after St Peter’s Square and Castel Gandolfo.
A view of the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalised for tests and treatment for bronchitis in Rome. (IMAGE: AFP)
Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where Pope Francis is being treated for bronchitis, is the favoured choice of pontiffs — to the point of being dubbed “Vatican III” by John Paul II.
It is the fourth visit to the Gemelli since 2021 for the 88-year-old Francis, who was admitted Friday. In June 2023 he had hernia surgery, after a respiratory infection in March 2023 and an operation on his colon in July 2021.
Polish pope John Paul II, head of the Catholic church from 1978 until his death in 2005, was treated nine times at Gemelli — Rome’s largest hospital — and spent a total of 153 days there.
He had quipped that “Vatican number one” was St Peter’s Square, number two was the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, and the Gemelli was number three.
John Paul II’s repeated and prolonged stays caused the Vatican to create a mini-residence on site, a top-floor apartment accessed by a long corridor guarded by Italian and Vatican police.
According to Italian media, the suite is painted white and furnished simply. Besides the pope’s room, there is a meeting room for medical staff, a kitchen, bathroom and rest areas.
There is also a small chapel.
Greeted by statue
The papal chamber was created from scratch in May 1981 when John Paul II was shot in St Peter’s Square by a young Turkish man, Mehmet Ali Agca, and rushed to Gemelli.
He underwent an operation lasting almost six hours to remove a bullet from his abdomen. He was also shot in his hand and arm, and two women in the crowd were also injured.
John Paul II returned to the hospital several times but in the end he died at the Vatican on April 2, 2005.
His statue looms over the entrance of the hospital, whose full name is the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli.
Francis’s predecessor Pope Benedict XVI never stayed at Gemelli — at least according to official announcements.
The German theologian resigned in 2013, citing declining physical and mental health. He lived in a monastery on the Vatican grounds and died there on December 31, 2022, aged 95.
Agostino Gemelli, the hospital’s namesake, was a Franciscan friar and psychologist who died in 1959.
In 1921 he founded the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, now considered the largest Catholic university in Europe.
The Gemelli hospital, opened in 1964, is part of the university.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)
