Pope Francis appears in St Peter’s Square at the end of the Jubilee of the Sick and the Healthcare World. The Pope’s public appearance has brought to an end weeks of rumours of his purported passing.
According to Vatican News, as Mass came to an end, the Pope made an unscheduled appearance, telling the assembled pilgrims “Have a good Sunday, and thank you all very much!”
This was the Pope’s first public appearance since he left hospital on Sunday March 23.
The Holy See Press Office reports that, before greeting the pilgrims, the Pope passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica and went to confession.
Apart from heading billions of adherents of Catholism, Pope Francis is also the head of the sovereign of the Vatican City State.
Originally born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Francis is the first Pope from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.
Before emerging as the Pope, Bergoglio was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969 and served as the provincial superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina from 1973 to 1979.
He then became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was made a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II.
Known for his humility, Pope Francis is also known to be emphasizing on God’s mercy, and commitment to social justice. He’s taken a less formal approach to the papacy, choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guest house rather than the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace.
