Pope Francis, recovering from severe pneumonia, has called on Catholics to observe Lent as a “time for healing.”
The 88-year-old Argentine pontiff left Rome’s Gemelli hospital last Sunday after five weeks of treatment and returned to the Vatican for a convalescence expected to last at least two months.
Francis missed the Angelus prayer again on Sunday, typically delivered at noon from a window of the apostolic palace overlooking St Peter’s Square. Instead, he released a written message.
“Dear friends, let us live this Lent as a time for healing. I am also experiencing it this way, in both my soul and body,” he wrote, referring to the period before Easter, with this year’s celebration on 20 April.
“We all share the experiences of fragility and illness, especially as we are brothers in the salvation Christ has given us,” he added.
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The Vatican announced on Friday that the Pope was showing “slight improvements”, with a voice previously strained and weak now reportedly stronger.
Doctors revealed that Francis nearly lost his life twice during his hospitalisation, which has been the longest and most challenging of his 12-year papacy.
On Sunday, Francis offered prayers for those affected by conflicts in Ukraine, the Palestinian territories and Israel, Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and earthquakes in Myanmar.
