Pope Francis thanked the prayers for his health during theSunday Angelus in Saint Peter’s Square, the day after being discharged from the roman hospital where he was hospitalized for bronchitis.
“I thank you for your participation and also for your prayers, which have intensified during these last days. Thank you, thank you indeed!” the 86-year-old Argentine pontiff told the crowd after his three-day hospitalization.
Standing before the altar the pope addressed all the people who have prayed and sent messages for a speedy recovery.
In his first public appearance for an official ceremony, Francisco looked pale and during his homily his voice was somewhat hoarse. Pope Francis presided over the solemn Palm Mass this Sunday in San Pedro Square, just one day after being discharged from the hospital.
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Pope entered the popemobile on the immense esplanade in front of nearly 35,000 people who were attending the ceremony under a blue and windy sky.
With a serious face and dressed in a white coat, waved to the faithful gathered on the immense esplanade for the mass that marks the beginning of Holy Week and who was feared unable to attend for health reasons.
Standing on the central obelisk of the square the pope first blessed thousands of olive and palm branches, a rite for believers to remember the entrance of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem.
Francisco was discharged on Saturday to be able to preside over the ceremonies of the most significant week of the Catholic Church, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Christ according to the account of the Gospels. The celebrations will continue until the Easter mass on Sunday, April 9.
As on other occasions and because he uses a wheelchair due to his knee pain, Francisco will only preside over the ceremonies. The Latin American pope is determined to fulfill his work schedule and has wanted to show the world that he has recovered.
“I’m still alive,” he joked to the faithful and journalists as he left the Gemelli hospital in Rome.
Asked how he felt, he told an anecdote about death, adding: “I only felt discomfort, but I wasn’t afraid.”
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an exhausting week
One of his fellow cardinals, Leonardo Sandri, Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals, who is about to turn 80, replaces him for mass from the altar.
Despite his recent illness and the fact that he will spend several hours outdoors, Francis will later appear in the window of the apostolic palace for the Sunday angelus.
With the Sunday mass, a grueling week for the elderly pontiffwhat includes the mass “In Coena Domini” of the Holy Thursday in the juvenile prison of Casal del Marmo in Rome.
The pope’s spokesman, Matteo Bruni, announced that the mass in that institution will be held “privately”, at an hour yet to be set.
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When he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio used to visit prisons on Holy Thursday and practice there the rite of footwashing for the poor, marginalized and helpless.
For him Way of the Cross at night on Good Friday in the Roman Colosseum, which is usually attended by faithful and tourists from all over the world, the agenda is not yet known.
If its favorable evolution is confirmed, it is probable that the Easter Sunday, on the occasion of the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing, to the city and the world, the Pope leans out from the central loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica to read the traditional message about world problems.
