By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY(Reuters) – Pope Francis (84), joked that he is still alive after being asked by French President Emmanuel Macron about the state of affairs at the Vatican’s start to an hour-long private meeting.

The Vatican released a video of them laughing and talking before and after their talks at the Papal Library.

Francis, the pope’s Italian interpreter answered the president’s question about how the situation was. The pope replied “perfect” shortly afterward, but it was not clear whether he was asking the same question.

Francis spent 11 days hospitalized in July after undergoing surgery to repair a part of his narrowed colon. This was his first hospitalization since 2013.

The Vatican did not reveal what they had talked privately, but stated that Macron met with high-ranking Vatican diplomats afterward to discuss climate change, Lebanon and Africa.

Macron told reporters shortly before the papal audience that he would talk with Francis about, among others, equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations, migration, and the crisis in Lebanon.

Macron told Britain earlier Friday that France must be serious or it will not participate in discussions about curbing the flow of migrants fleeing poverty and war across the Channel. France and Britain continued to exchange blames over 27 deaths at sea.

France also plays a major role in helping Lebanon to overcome its severe economic crisis.

On Thursday, the pope met the Prime Minister of Lebanon and compared it to a dying man. He promised that he would do all he could to make the country “rise again”.

Macron presented the pope with a copy of an unusual 1585 biography on St. Ignatius Loyola (the founder of Jesuits), which Macron is also a member of.