Pope Francis came close to death and told hospital staff, "It's bad," as they battled to save his life, a doctor treating the pontiff for pneumonia has disclosed.

The 88-year-old pontiff was released from the hospital on March 23, after five weeks of fighting double pneumonia.

The Pope is now back in his apartment in Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he has lived since his election, two days after his discharge from Rome's Gemelli Hospital.

He spent 38 days there being treated for double pneumonia and he is very happy to be back home, Vatican sources said, the Daily Mail reported.

He has begun the "at least two months period of rest and convalescence" prescribed by his doctors, Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesperson, told journalists on March 25, America, the Jesuits Review reported.

Francis is following a triple therapy: pharmacological (oral medicines), respiratory, and physiotherapy.

His nurses are caring for him 24/7, assisted by his private secretaries.

The Pope has not received any outside visitors yet, Bruni said, but he concelebrated Mass this morning in his private chapel on the second floor of Santa Marta, where he lives.

It's unclear if Francis can lead or even attend any of April's services during Holy Week and Easter Sunday, the high point of the church's liturgical year, or make a planned trip to Turkiye in May, CNN reported.

The Catholic Church is also in the midst of a jubilee year, with teams of pilgrims coming to Rome and expecting to see the Pope.

"Francis has a difficult balancing act. He needs to take the time to recover to avoid any further relapse. Yet the expectations of the papacy, and the way he has exercised his office as a visible and accessible pope, demand his public presence," CNN commented.

Apart from the update on the Pope, the breaking news in Rome on March 25 came from Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the coordinator of the medical team that cared for the Pope in Gemelli Hospital and the surgeon who operated on him in 2021 and 2023.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera, the leading Italian daily newspaper, published, March 25, he revealed much of what happened to the Pope during his 38 days in the hospital, describing two critical situations where Francis came close to death.

The first critical situation occurred on Feb. 22, when the Pope had a bronchial spasm; he struggled to breathe and asked for help. Professor Alfieri described that as "the worst moment. It was ugly."

"For the first time, I saw tears in the eyes of some people around him—persons who, I understood in this period of hospitalization, sincerely love him, like a father. We were all aware that the situation had further worsened and there was a risk that he would not make it."

Dr. Alfieri said, "We had to choose whether to stop and let him go, or to force and try all possible drugs and therapies, running the very high risk of damaging other organs. And in the end, we took this path."