The head of the Catholic church appeared publicly for the second time since leaving the hospital after a diagnosis of pneumonia.
Pope Francis obtained a greeting in person with the faithful of Saint-Pierre on Sunday Palm in another positive public sign of his recovery of a fatal battle with a double pneumonia.
On Sunday, the 88 -year -old pontiff wished more than 20,000 people a “Happy Rameau Sunday, a Happy Happy week” when he was sitting in a wheelchair without nasal tubes for additional oxygen.
The Vatican said he was waiting to announce the role he could play in the events of Holy Week leading to Easter on April 20 after the doctors advised him to avoid crowds.
He did not take into account their advice on Sunday as he thanked the faithful for their prayers. “At that time of physical weakness, they help me to feel even more the proximity, the compassion and the sensitivity of God,” he said before exhorting them to carry the cross “of those who suffer around us” to mark the beginning of the solemn holy week.
Many in the crowd sought to touch the hand or Francis’s clothes when he was brought to a wheelchair to the main altar.
The pontiff also offered prayers for those who suffer in the conflict in Sudan, which marks its second anniversary on Tuesday, as well as for peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, South Sudan and Lebanon, whose civil war began 50 years ago.
The appearance was his second in St Peter’s Square before a crowd since he left the hospital on March 23. He made an unexpected appearance last Sunday, which was welcomed with joy by the faithful. He also met British King Charles III and Queen Camilla in private private King and made an impromptu visit to the Saint-Pierre basilica.
Francis was dismissed from the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome after a five -week hospitalization. Doctors said he would need two months of rest at the Vatican.
