ROME — Pope Francis is making his first public appearance in five weeks before being discharged Sunday from the hospital, where he survived a severe case of pneumonia that twice threatened his life and raised the prospect of a papal resignation or funeral.
The 88-year-old pontiff plans to offer a Sunday blessing from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where a huge crowd gathered at the main entry piazza, including patients wheeled outside to see him in person. After saying goodbye to hospital staff, Francis is to return to the Vatican to begin at least two months of rest, rehabilitation and convalescence.
Doctors, who announced his planned release at a Saturday evening news conference, have said he should refrain from meeting with big groups of people or exerting himself, but that eventually he should be able to resume all his normal activities.
His return home, after the longest hospitalisation of his 12-year papacy and the second-longest in recent papal history, brought tangible relief to the Vatican and Catholic faithful who have been anxiously following 38 days of medical ups and downs and wondering if Francis would make it.“Today I feel a great joy,” said Dr. Rossella Russomando, a doctor from Salerno who didn’t treat Francis but was at Gemelli on Sunday. “It is the demonstration that all our prayers, all the rosary prayers from all over the world, brought this grace.”
