Pope Leo XIV paid an unannounced visit to the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome to pray with the family of a 15-year-old boy who remains in critical condition after suffering complications from lymphoma.
Ignacio Gonzálvez had come from Murcia, Spain, to Rome with his family to take part in the Jubilee of Youth, but was urgently admitted to hospital after collapsing unexpectedly. He is currently in the hospital's intensive care unit in an induced coma and dependent on respiratory support.
The Pope’s visit on 4 August followed his public appeal at the end of the Jubilee of Youth vigil Mass in the Tor Vergata district of Rome on 3 August, when he asked the tens of thousands of young people present to pray for Ignacio.
