Recovering Pope Francis visits Rome prison to keep annual Holy Week appointment
Francis is expected to make at least some other Easter appearances over the coming days.
Pope Francis has visited Rome’s main prison and met with dozens of inmates as he kept an Easter season appointment to spend Holy Thursday among the least fortunate, even as he continues recovering from a life-threatening bout of pneumonia.
The motorcade carrying Francis entered the Regina Caeli prison in Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood just before 3pm local time, and the Vatican said Francis would meet with 70 inmates.
It is a prison Francis has visited before to perform the annual Holy Thursday ritual of washing the feet of 12 people to re-enact Christ’s gesture of humble service of washing the feet of 12 apostles before his crucifixion.
The Vatican did not say if Francis would perform the ritual this year. But the fact that the 88-year-old pope kept the appointment, when he is under doctors’ orders to take it easy and avoid crowds, was a clear sign of the importance he places on prison ministry and the need for priests to serve those most on the margins.
That is all the more true during the 2025 Holy Year, which both opened and will close with special papal events for prison inmates.
Francis is expected to make at least some other Easter appearances over the coming days.
He made a surprise cameo at the end of Palm Sunday Mass last weekend and in recent days has made some unannounced visits — including one in which he was not dressed in his papal white cassock — to pray in St Peter’s Basilica and St Mary Major basilica across town.
In recent outings, including on Thursday, he has been seen without the nasal tubes that provide supplemental oxygen and Vatican officials say he is increasingly less reliant on the therapy.
Asked on Thursday how he was doing and marking this year’s Easter season, Francis said in a weak voice: “I am living it as I can.”
– Francis received medical workers who treated him
On Wednesday, Francis held his first formal group audience since returning to the Vatican on March 23, meeting with the medical staff of the Gemelli hospital who cared for him during his 38-day stay.
Gathered in a Vatican audience hall, Francis thanked the 70-plus doctors, nurses and administrators and asked them for their continued prayers.
“Thank you for everything you did,” Francis said, his voice still laboured but seemingly stronger as he continues respiratory and physical therapy.
Francis has delegated the demanding Holy Week liturgical celebrations to hand-picked cardinals, but the Vatican says the pope himself composed the meditations that will be read aloud by others during the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession on Friday night at Rome’s Colosseum.
Easter Sunday Mass has been assigned to the retired administrator of St Peter’s, Cardinal Angelo Comastri.
It remains to be seen how Francis will handle Easter Sunday’s traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (Latin for “to the city and the world”) speech and blessing after Mass.
Normally the pope delivers a sometimes lengthy discourse on the state of the world from the loggia of St Peter’s, and then imparts a special blessing to the faithful in the piazza below.
In theory someone else could read the speech while Francis could impart the blessing.
Francis was admitted to Gemelli on February 14 with bronchitis that quickly developed into a life-threatening case of double pneumonia.
Upon his release March 23, doctors prescribed two months of convalescence at the Vatican with daily respiratory and physical therapy to improve his breathing and vocal function.
With time, they have predicted he will be able to resume his normal activities.
