Pope Franciscus made his first public appearance in the hospital on Sunday, where he survived a serious case of pneumonia that doctors said twice threatened the life of the Roman Catholic church leader.
The 88-year-old Pontiff offered a Sunday blessing from the Gemelli hospital in Rome. The Vatican broadcaster also read a statement from the Pope of the Holy See Press Office in English.
In it, Pope Francis said that he was ‘sad by the heavy Israeli bombing in Gaza’.
A large crowd gathered in the main citizens’ spiazza of the Gemelli hospital, including patients who were driven out to see him personally. The pope waved from the balcony and smiled briefly through a microphone, although doctors said that his voice was weakened by his illness. The Holy Father made the sign of the cross on the crowd. Francis was then released from the hospital and returns to the Vatican to start at least two months of rest, rehabilitation and recovery.
Pope Franciscus will be dismissed from the hospital on Sunday: Doctors
Pope Francis gestures during his first public appearance in five weeks, on the day he is fired from the Gemelli Hospital, in Rome, Italy, March 23, 2025. (Reuters/Yara Nardi)
His resignation comes after 38 days of medical ups and downs that have increased the prospect of a papal dismissal or funeral.
Doctors, who have announced his planned release at a news conference on Saturday evening, have said that the Holy Father should refrain from meeting large groups of people or exercise himself, but that he should eventually resume all his normal activities. It was the longest hospitalization of Francis of his 12-year-old papacy and the second longest in recent papal history.
In the Vatican, on the third Sunday of the Lenten season in anticipation of Easter, pilgrims flocked while they went to St. Peter’s Basilica all year round to participate in the holy year of 2025. They swarmed St. Peter’s Square and progressed through the Holy Door in groups, while large TVs’ screens were called in, according to the square, according to the square, according to the square Press.
No special arrangements have been made in the Domus Santa Marta, the Vatican hotel next to the Basilica, where Francis lives in a two -room suite on the second floor, according to the AP. Francis has access to additional oxygen and 24-hour medical care if necessary, although his personal doctor, Dr. Luigi Carbone, said he hoped that Francis gradually needed less and less help as his lungs recover.
Although the infection pneumonia has been successfully treated, Francis will continue to take oral medication for some time to treat the fungal infection in his lungs and continue his breathing and physical physiotherapy.
“He asks for three or four days when he can go home, so he is very happy,” said Carbone.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the medical and surgical chef at Gemelli, who coordinated the Francis medical team, emphasized that not all patients developing such a serious case of double pneumonia are released much less from the hospital. He said that Francis’s life was in danger twice, during the two acute respiratory crises, and that the pope understandably lost his typical good sense of humor at that time.
King Charles III to meet Pope Francisc next month during a visit to Vatican
“But one morning we went to listen to his lungs and we asked him how he was doing. When he answered,” I am still alive, “we knew he was okay and got his good humor back,” he said.
The Holy Father is never intubated and never lost consciousness, said Alfieri.
Alfieri confirmed that Francis still had problems speaking because of the damage to his lungs and respiratory muscles. But he said that such problems were normal, especially in older patients, and predicted that his voice would eventually return to normal.
The spokesperson for Vatican, Matteo Bruni, refused to confirm any upcoming events, including a planned audience on 8 April with the participation of King Charles III or Francis’ participation in Easter services at the end of the month. But Carbone said he hoped that Francis might be good enough to travel to Turkey at the end of May to participate in an important ecumenical anniversary.
Francis also returns to the Vatican in the grip of a holy year, the once-all-quart-century party planned to attract more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome this year. The Pope has already missed several anniversary audience and will probably miss several more, but Vatican officers say that his absence has not significantly influenced the number of expected pilgrims.
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Only St. John Paul II registered a longer hospitalization in 1981, when he spent 55 days at Gemelli for small operation and treatment of an infection.
The Associated Press has contributed to this report.
