Pope admits he was seriously ill

Michele Ferri and the Pope's friend, Bergoglio confides: "I had a bad time".

In his 90th phone call, the pontiff recalled his recent hospitalisation. But the computer expert says: "He has recovered, this time I heard a ringing voice".

Ninetieth call, round number. There is no lung infection (with consequent hospitalisation, at the end of March), there are no Easter commitments or international scenarios to manage: nothing and no one, not even his health problems, prevent Pope Francis from remembering to call Michele Ferri, the 52-year-old computer scientist from Pesaro, with whom, after the tragedy linked to the murder of his brother Andrea in 2013, the Pontiff established a friendship that is now so deep-rooted that in the space of 10 years, 90 telephone calls have been made between the two. The Pope has always 'sanctified' all important appointments with the Ferri family. Including the Easter greetings, like last Saturday. The phone call was on the eve of Easter, at around 11.20am, a hectic day for the Pontiff. A few minutes of conversation between him and Michele. Only the two of them spoke, Michele's wife, Loretta, was busy at work: because often when the Pope called he also spoke to Michele's family.

"I'm still alive, he told me," Michele reports, summarising the call. "He began like that and this time I heard a voice that was fit, ringing and serene, better than the last time, then I had seemed a little tired," adds Michele, referring to 3 January, the date of his 52nd birthday, which of course Pope Francis had not forgotten.

"I told him: you gave us quite a scare!" says Michele, and continues: "He explained to me that he had arrived unconscious at the hospital. 'Just a few more hours and I don't know if I was telling the story', he told me". Confirming that the Pope reacted well to an ailment that had its own gravity.

Between Michele Ferri and the Pope in this last phone call there was an exchange of confidences about each other's health, since Michele has also recently been undergoing therapy. "That's why he asked me how I was", Michele recounts, "then we exchanged Easter greetings".

This is the 90th call, 'now we are aiming for a hundred,' jokes Michele Ferri, but not so much: 'I think the next one will be for the anniversary of Andrea's death, on 4 June. Andrea was the brother of Michele, who was killed in a robbery on 4 June 10 years ago. From there began a letter that Michele wrote to the Pope asking why so much pain had befallen his family. And it was from there that the friendship between the two began, a bond that goes beyond all conventions and commitments that a man like the Pontiff must necessarily respect. But friendship, Pope Francis, does not neglect it.

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