Pope Leo XIV has appointed Dr. Luigi Carbone as head of the Vatican Health and Hygiene Department, the Vatican Press Office announced on June 1, 2025. He came to public attention last winter during press conferences on the health of Pope Francis, for whom he was the personal physician.
Dr. Luigi Carbone, an emergency medicine expert, has been promoted from deputy director to director of the Vatican City State’s Health and Hygiene Department.
Dr. Luigi Carbone, a native of Puglia in southern Italy, is a specialist in surgery and emergency medicine. Head of the emergency department at Gemelli Isola Hospital on Tiber Island, he has also served as deputy director of the Vatican Health and Hygiene Department since November 2024.
As Pope Francis's personal physician, he appeared at press conferences held during the Argentine pontiff's hospitalization between February 14 and March 23.
On August 1, he will succeed Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, who will then reach the end of his five-year term, which began on August 1, 2020. This month, Arcangeli turns 70, the retirement age for lay officials in the Vatican. His term has been marked in particular by the management of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included systematic vaccination campaigns carried out in 2021 in the Vatican, in which almost all employees of the world's smallest state were required to participate.
Gratitude and teamwork
Looking back on his time as deputy director, in an interview for the Vatican State website alongside Dr. Arcangeli, he says “the balance is positive. (...) It has been a very instructive experience. It has allowed me to see things from a different point of view.”
Regarding his new appointment, he adds, “What I feel is a sentiment of gratitude for the trust I have received, which was given to me and at the same time, a challenge” of “service” he has to fulfill.
Among the tasks before him is “taking up again some activities that slowed down a bit during the period of COVID,” while focusing on the Holy Father’s health and that of residents and transients inside the Vatican State. This, he says, will require “great teamwork.”
“Knowing you are called directly by the Holy Father to carry out such a delicate task demands seriousness, respect, and great responsibility at the level of the trust placed in you by the Holy Father,” he concludes.
