Pope Francis leaves the hospital: “I’m still alive,” he tells a mother and his daughter, Serena Subania
ROME — Pope Francis was discharged on Saturday from the Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis, quipping to journalists before being driven away: “I’m still alive.”
Before departing, Francis had an emotional moment with a Rome couple whose 5-year-old daughter died Friday night at the hospital. Serena Subania was so upset that the pope touched her head that she pressed her head into the pope’s chest.
Francis seemed eager to linger with well-wishers. The pope gestured as if to ask if the boy had a pen after he showed him his arm cast. A papal aide handed Francis one, and the pope autographed the cast.
The pope said in a whisper when the reporters pressed him that he was feeling chest pain, a symptom that convinced his medical staff to take him to the hospital.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/01/1167584982/pope-francis-leaves-hospital
An Associated Press Photograph of Francis as a Pope in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, 1921-2020 and After Gemelli Polyclinic
Francis was in the front seat of the white car that took him away from Gemelli Polyclinic. His motorcade sped right past Vatican City instead of heading straight home according to an Associated Press photographer positioned outside the walled city state.
The basilica is believed to be a favorite of the pope. After he was discharged from the same hospital in July 2021 following intestinal surgery, Francis stopped to offer prayers of thanksgiving at St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, which is home to an icon depicting the Virgin Mary.
On Friday, Vatican officials said Francis would be at St. Peter’s Square for Palm Sunday Mass to mark the start of Holy Week, which culminates on Easter, April 9.
The sun broke through the clouds during the Mass, one of the longest services on the Church’s calendar, as Francis, red vestments placed over his coat, sat in a chair under a canopy erected in the square.
He took his place there after standing and clutching a braided palm branch in a popemobile that drove at the tail end of a long, solemn procession of cardinals, other prelates and rank-and-file Catholics. The participants were carrying palm fronds or tree branches.
Francis, 86, received antibiotics administered intravenously during his three-day stay. He was last seen conducting his regular Wednesday public audience in St. Peter’s Square. He was taken to the Gemelli Polyclinic because he felt unwell.
His voice sounded strong as he opened the Mass, but quickly turned strained. Francis read a 15-minute-long homily even though he was hoarse, occasionally adding off-the- cuff remarks for emphasis or gesturing with a hand.
The homily focused on moments when people feel “extreme pain, love that fails, or is rejected or betrayed.” Francis cited “children who are rejected or aborted,” as well as broken marriages, “forms of social exclusion, injustice and oppression, (and) the solitude of sickness.”
Deviating from his prepared speech, Francis spoke about a homeless German man who recently died, “alone, abandoned,” under the colonnade circling St. Peter’s Square, where homeless persons often sleep.