The atheist physician who built the pope’s hospital

Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA

Daniel Esparza - published on 03/28/25

Agostino Gemelli’s journey from skeptic to saintly scholar is a testament to the power of compassion and intellect working together.

When Pope Francis was discharged after 38 days at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, some may have wondered if the name Gemelli — Italian for “twins” — was a nod to Sts. Cosmas and Damian, the twin physician-martyrs of early Christianity. But the hospital is named for just one man: Agostino Gemelli, a former atheist and military doctor whose dramatic conversion and lifelong pursuit of truth left an enduring mark on Catholic education, science, and health care.

Born Edoardo Gemelli in Milan in 1878, he was raised in a staunchly secular environment. His father was a Freemason, and his family rejected religion entirely. Edoardo pursued medicine at the University of Pavia, where he encountered Ludovico Necchi, a devout Catholic who influenced him not through preaching but through deep philosophical conversation and scientific dialogue. Slowly, Edoardo’s convictions began to shift.

His turning point came during World War I, while serving as a military doctor. In a hospital in Milan, a dying soldier, disfigured by leprosy, looked at him and said, “If my mother were here, she’d kiss me … could you?” Moved to the core, Edoardo kissed the man on the cheek. The gesture, simple yet profound, led to a spiritual awakening.

On Holy Thursday in 1903, Edoardo received Holy Communion for the first time and decided to become a Franciscan. Despite fierce opposition from his family — including an attempted kidnapping to prevent his entrance into religious life — he joined the order and took the name Agostino. He was ordained in 1908.

Rather than leaving science behind, Fr. Gemelli became a pioneer of experimental psychology in Italy. He founded the Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica and championed the harmony of faith and reason. In 1921, with Pope Benedict XV’s support, he established the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, aimed at forming lay Catholic intellectuals. In 1964, its medical faculty opened the doors of what would become one of Italy’s most renowned hospitals: the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic.

The Gemelli Hospital gained international recognition after the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Rushed there with four gunshot wounds, the Polish pope would return many times during his pontificate — over 150 days in total. He affectionately nicknamed it “Vatican III,” a nod to his other residences at the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo.

Today, a 200-square-meter suite on the 10th floor remains permanently reserved for pontifical use. Gemelli Hospital is not only the largest in Rome but also one of Italy’s top-ranked medical centers, known for its excellence in research and education.

Agostino Gemelli’s journey from skeptic to saintly scholar is a testament to the power of compassion and intellect working together. His legacy continues in every student trained, every patient healed, and in the quiet dignity with which the Church continues to serve the sick.

 

Justin Welby: I failed to act on abuse scandal as scale was 'overwhelming'

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Media caption,

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: "The reality is I got it wrong"

Laura Kuenssberg

Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

@bbclaurak

Published
5 hours ago

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has told the BBC he failed to follow up abuse allegations within the Church of England because the scale of the problem was "absolutely overwhelming".

In November he became the first Archbishop in more than 1,000 years to quit, after a damning independent review found he did not follow up rigorously enough on reports of John Smyth, a serial abuser of children and young men, who was associated with the Church.

In his first interview since resigning, Welby, 68, told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that the sheer scale of the problem was "a reason – not an excuse" for his failure to act after taking the job in 2013.

"Every day more cases were coming across the desk that had been in the past, hadn't been dealt with adequately, and this was just, it was another case - and yes I knew Smyth but it was an absolutely overwhelming few weeks," he said.

"It was overwhelming, one was trying to prioritise - but I think it's easy to sound defensive over this.

"The reality is I got it wrong. As Archbishop, there are no excuses."

One of Smyth's victims, known as Graham, who reported the abuse allegation in 2013, told the BBC: "The Archbishop suggests he was just too busy. No one should be too busy to deal with a safeguarding disclosure. The Archbishop has never answered why there were not enormous red flags when told about horrific abuse."

The Makin Review - an independent report led by safeguarding expert Keith Makin - found Smyth's "horrific" and violent abuse of more than 100 children and young men in England and Africa was covered up within the Church of England for decades.

Smyth, a barrister and senior member of a Christian charity, was accused of attacking dozens of boys at his home in Winchester, Hampshire and at Christian camps in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Justin Welby: "We don't treat our leaders as human... if you want perfect leaders, we won't have any leaders"

He is said to have subjected his victims to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, including giving eight boys a total of 14,000 lashings with a garden cane in his shed. He then moved to Africa where his abuse continued.

By 2013 the Church of England "knew, at the highest level" about Smyth's abuse, including Welby, who took up the Church's top job that year, the review found. It added that Welby "could and should" have reported the case to authorities when details were presented to him in 2013, and that Smyth could have been brought to justice earlier.

Smyth died aged 77 in Cape Town in 2018 before he could be brought to justice.

The review concluded that Welby, as the leader of the Church, had not been sufficiently curious about the allegations when he was made aware of them in 2013, and that it was unlikely he had not known before then.

He has always denied being aware of Smyth's behaviour before that year.

Welby had previously resisted calls to step aside over his response to the case, and when the Makin Review was released in November he insisted he did not have to resign. But days later, he said in a statement that he "must take personal and institutional responsibility" for his response to the scandal.

He said at the time that he stepped down "in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse".

In his interview with the BBC, Welby expressed concern about the pressure on public figures, saying there can be a "rush to judgement".

"Having been the object of that question [over whether to resign], it's a very difficult one to answer because you think: am I letting people down? Is it the right thing to do? It's a complicated question.

"I think there is a rush to judgement, there is this immense - and this goes back half a century - immense distrust for institutions and there's a point where you need institutions to hold society together.

"There's an absence, I'm not talking about safeguarding here, there is an absence of forgiveness; we don't treat our leaders as human.

"We expect them to be perfect. If you want perfect leaders you won't have any leaders."

The Church of England declined to comment before the full interview is broadcast on Sunday.

You can watch more of the exclusive interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday at 09:00