The Holy See Press Office is tucked under the arcades of Via della Conciliazione, just outside St. Peter’s Square, in a 1930s building constructed during the Fascist era as part of an urban renovation overseen by Mussolini. The boulevard symbolizes the reconciliation (hence its name) between the Catholic Church and the Italian state, an axis that visually and politically connected the Vatican to the heart of Rome.

On February 14, when the news broke that Pope Francis had been admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital with a complex lung infection, the press hall, normally home to no more than a dozen wire reporters, filled up with hundreds of journalists of every nationality. Quiet chatter turned into urgent phone calls and multilingual exchanges as reporters jostled for updates and awaited the next official bulletin delivered by the Vatican’s spokesmen.