Pope to make first public appearance before hospital discharge
Francis plans to offer a Sunday blessing from the papal suite at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he has been recovering for the past 38 days.
Pope Francis is to make his first public appearance in five weeks before he is discharged from hospital.
Francis 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 the 10th-floor papal suite at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
After saying goodbye to hospital staff, he is to return to the Vatican to begin at least two months of rest, rehabilitation and convalescence, during which time doctors have said he should refrain from meeting in big groups or exerting himself.
But Francis’s personal doctor, Dr Luigi Carbone, told a hastily arranged press conference on Saturday evening that the pope should eventually be able to resume all his normal activities, as long as he maintains the slow and steady progress he has registered to date.
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.
