Pope Francis Makes First Public Appearance Since Hospitalization

Pope Francis made his first public appearance Sunday since his weeks-long hospital stay, briefly greeting the crowd in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

Sitting in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen nasal cannula, Pope Francis told worshippers, “Happy Sunday to everyone. Thank you very much,” ABC News reports.

Pope Francis — amid “a convalescence and rest period of at least two months,” his doctors said when he was discharged in March 23 following his lengthy pneumonia battle — “joined the Jubilee pilgrimage,” the Vatican press office said Sunday, adding that “before greeting the pilgrims and faithful in the square, to whom he addressed his thanks, he received the sacrament of reconciliation in St. Peter’s Basilica, gathered in prayer and passed through the Holy Door.”

In a series of messages on social media, the pontiff alluded to his health battle over chronic lung issues. “Dear doctors, nurses and health care workers, as you care for your patients, the Lord constantly offers you an opportunity to renew your lives through gratitude, mercy, and hope,” he wrote.

“I have much in common with you at this time of my life, dear brothers and sisters who are sick: the experience of illness, of weakness, of having to depend on others for so many things, and of needing their support.”

Pope Francis continued, “The hospital room and the sickbed can also be places where we hear the voice of the Lord speak to us: ‘Behold, I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?’ (Is 43:19). In this way, we renew and strengthen our faith.”