Convalescing Pope Francis opens Holy Week with in-person greeting to faithful in St. Peter’s Square

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A welcoming Pope Francis has the crowd on the St. Peter’s Square greeted on Palm on Sunday and more than 20,000 believers a ‘good Palm Sunday, a good holy week’, desired in another reassuring public sign of his recovery of a life -threatening battle with double pneumonia.

Many in the crowd have reached out to touch Francis’s hand or garments, while bringing a wheelchair into a ramp to the main altar, where he issued his short greeting in a microphone. Francis did not wear nose tubes for supplemental oxygen, as he had during a similar appearance last Sunday.

On the way back to St. Peter’s Basilica from where he came up, Francis stopped to bless a rosary, and offered candy to a boy who greeted him.

88-year-old Francis is entering his fourth week of recovery, which is expected to last for at least two months.

In the traditional Sunday blessing, the Pontiff thanked believers for their prayers. “At this time of physical weakness, they help me to feel God’s closeness, compassion, and tenderness even more.” For the ninth week, including his five -week hospital from February 14, the blessing was delivered as a text.

The Pope offered prayers for those suffering in the conflict in Sudan, who marked his second anniversary on Tuesday, and for Lebanon, where the Civil War began 50 years ago, as well as for peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, Congo, Myanmar and South Sudan.

In a prepared homely read by a top Vatican cardinal, Francis urged believers to carry the cross “of those who suffer around us” to celebrate the beginning of the solemn holy week.

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals, led the celebrations and led a march of cardinals around the Piazza’s central obelisk that carries a graceful braided palm reminiscent of Jesus’ triumphant entrance to Jerusalem, then crowded palm branches.

The initial welcome contrasts with the suffering that follows, leading to His crucifixion, which Christians observe on Good Friday, followed by His resurrection, celebrated on Easter Sunday.

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