Papal health news: A sensitive issue for Vatican

From the silence surrounding John XXIII's cancer to the detailed medical bulletins issued during Francis's hospitalisations, Vatican communication about popes' health has gradually opened up over the past half-century.

A picture shows the statue of John Paul II outside Rome's Gemelli University Hospital, where Pope Leo XIV has been admitted for an operation to remove a lump from his lung, on 13 October 2026. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Elected at 76, the Italian Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli suffered from stomach cancer, which was not diagnosed until several months before his death on June 3, 1963.

During the Second Vatican Council, which John XXIII had convened, the Vatican remained vague on his diagnosis, not revealing his illness until after he had died.

Giovanni Battista Montini suffered from arthritis and various age-related medical problems that gradually reduced his mobility over the course of the 1970s.

He died of a heart attack aged 80 on August 6, 1978, at the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo, near Rome.

Source: Citizen Digital