03/31/2023 17:25 (act. 03/31/2023 17:30)
Francis just before Easter only featured on postcards in St. Peter’s Square ©APA/AFP
Pope Francis, suffering from a respiratory infection, will leave the hospital on Saturday. He is due to return to the Vatican on Saturday once the results of the latest investigation carried out on Friday are available, pope spokesman Matteo Bruni said. The 86-year-old pontiff will attend Mass on Palm Sunday but will not celebrate or join the procession with the cardinals, Bruni said.
The Pope is fine, reported Bruni. On Thursday night, he ate a pizza with the people who had been with him these days, including doctors, nurses, assistants and gendarmerie personnel. On Friday morning, after breakfast, the Pope read some newspapers and went back to work. “The trials and tribulations of life – lived in faith – help purify the heart, make it more humble and ready to open up to God,” the pope tweeted on Friday.
On Friday afternoon, the Pope visited the children interned in the oncology department of the Gemelli Hospital, explained Bruni. He gave them rosaries and chocolate eggs. During the visit, which lasted about half an hour, the Pope baptized a boy named Miguel Angel, just a few weeks old. In the end, he returned to his room on the tenth floor of the hospital.
Francis had already spent the second night in the hospital. The pontiff is currently being treated for bronchitis and given intravenous antibiotics, doctors said. The Pope was admitted to the hospital in Rome on Wednesday afternoon. First, the Vatican said it was a “planned investigation”. At night, there was talk of a respiratory infection “which will require proper medical treatment in the hospital for a few days.”
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside over the Mass that begins the Easter week. “I can confirm that I will celebrate Mass on Palm Sunday. Of course I hope the Pope recovers and presides over the liturgies as on other occasions, even if a cardinal is at the altar,” said the Argentine, according to media sources. .
Sandri assured that “all the people of God will be united in prayer to Pope Francis, especially for his speedy recovery”. Meanwhile, it has been announced that the Easter Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Dean Giovanni Battista Re, the Chrism Mass on the morning of Holy Thursday by Cardinal Vicar Angelo De Donatis and the afternoon Mass “in Coena Domini” with the rite of lava -feet by Becomes Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. Easter is considered the greatest Christian holiday. Christians remember the suffering, crucifixion and resurrection of the believing Jesus Christ, whom they see as the Son of God.