Daily Tribune
(FILES) Pope Francis gestures to the crowd from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter's Square during the Epiphany Angelus prayer, in the Vatican, on 6 January 2025. Pope Francis will make his first public appearance on 22 March, 2025 with a blessing and a wave from a window at Rome's Gemelli hospital where he was admitted on 14 February.
Andreas Solaro / AFP
Pope Francis will make his first public appearance on Sunday with a blessing and a wave from a window at Rome's Gemelli hospital where he was admitted on 14 February.
The 88-year-old pontiff has been battling pneumonia in both lungs after being hospitalised for breathing difficulties.
"Pope Francis intends to wave and offer a blessing from the Agostino Gemelli hospital in Rome after Angelus prayers," The Vatican said Saturday.
The pope has stopped using an oxygen mask. After an earlier series of breathing attacks, his breathing has improved and the Vatican said on Monday he was spending short moments breathing on his own.
For most of the pope's hospital stay, including critical stages, the Vatican was publishing daily bulletins on the health of Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man.
The pope's illness and long spell in hospital has raised questions over who might lead the busy schedule of religious events leading up to Easter, the holiest period in the Christian calendar.
