Pope makes unexpected appearance in St Peter’s Square

By CathNews New Zealand

April 8th, 2025

POPE FRANCIS MASS JUBILEE SICK AND HEALTH CARE WORKERS

Pope Francis greets the faithful in St. Peter's Square at the end of the closing Mass for the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers at the Vatican April 6, 2025. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)

Pope Francis made a surprise appearance to greet the crowd after the closing Mass of the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers at the Vatican. Source: Catholic News Service.

Seated in a wheelchair and wearing a nasal cannula, the Pope was wheeled into St Peter’s Square by his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, on April 6.

“A happy Sunday to you all, many thanks!” the Pope said in a strained voice.

People gathered in the square broke out in cheers upon seeing the Pope. Among those present were thousands of sick people and those who care for them.

After the Pope’s brief greeting, doctors in white lab coats, some wearing red clown noses, and people in wheelchairs applauded as Pope Francis was taken through the crowd to leave the square.

The appearance marks the first time Pope Francis had been seen in public since he was discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on March 23 after more than five weeks of treatment for breathing difficulties and double pneumonia. Prior to appearing in the square, Pope Francis went to confession in St Peter’s Basilica and passed through the Holy Door, the Vatican Press Office said.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, presided over the Mass as the Pope’s delegate and read the Pope’s homily.

Even amid pain, illness and human fragility, “God does not leave us alone and, if we abandon ourselves to him precisely where our strength fails, we can experience the consolation of his presence”, the Pope wrote.

“By becoming man, he wanted to share our weakness in everything. He knows what it is to suffer.”

In his homily, the Pope emphasised that the experience of illness, though painful, can become “a school in which we learn each day to love and to let ourselves be loved, without being demanding or pushing back, without regrets and without despair”.

The Pope urged society not to marginalise the weak and vulnerable but to embrace them as essential members of the community. He quoted Pope Benedict XVI, who said that a society unable to accept its suffering members “is a cruel and inhuman society”.

FULL STORY

Ailing pope surprises pilgrims during Jubilee of the sick (By Justin McLellan/CNS)