Pope Francis will attend Mass on Palm Sunday in Saint Peter’s Square after his recent hospitalization for bronchitis, confirmed today the spokesman for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni.
Francisco, 86, is expected to leave the Gemelli hospital in Rome tomorrow, where he has been admitted since Wednesday for bronchitis and, in this way, may preside over the mass that officially opens the rites of Holy Week.
Given his state of health, with the convalescing pontiff, the Vatican is working on a program that allows Easter to be celebrated and the idea, according to the media, is that the rites be officiated at the altar by different cardinals but presided over by Francisco.
Palm Sunday will be officiated by the Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, and with this celebration will open the most important week of the liturgical calendar, in which Catholics commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ.
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For the moment, the Vatican has not confirmed its plans and in what way Francisco will be involved in the different masses, if, for example, he will read homilies or messages like the one he usually pronounces at the end of the Via Crucis on Good Friday, in the Roman Coliseum.
At the moment it is expected that he will be in charge of pronouncing the homily on Palm Sunday and also to impart the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing and read his Easter Sunday message from the central loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica.
Regarding his health, the Holy See advanced today that the Argentine pope will be discharged from hospital tomorrow, Saturday, after seeing the results of today’s controls.
Francisco suffers from infectious-based bronchitis and is receiving intravenous infusion of antibiotics, a therapy that has produced “the expected effects with a notable improvement in his state of health,” the Vatican spokesman said.
Yesterday afternoon he had a “good time” in the apartment for the exclusive use of the pontiffs in the Gemelli, with “a normal clinical evolution”, and had pizza for dinner with those who care for him during these days, Bruni explained in a brief statement. .
With him were the doctors, the nurses, assistants and security personnel of the Vatican Gendarmerie.
This morning, after his second night hospitalized and as he did the day before, he had breakfast, read some newspapers and continued with his work from the hospital.
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The night has passed “serenely” for the Argentine pontiff.
For this reason, last night there was talk in the Vatican statement that Francis was expecting a medical discharge “in the next few days” and it will foreseeably take place tomorrow, Saturday.
It is the second time that Francis has been admitted to this Roman hospitalafter he underwent colon surgery on July 4, 2021 and remained hospitalized for ten days, in which he came to officiate the Angelus from the balcony of the health center.
Since then, the Pope has only suffered a problem in his right knee that forces him to walk with a cane or a wheelchair and has assured on several occasions that he does not want to undergo surgery.