The release of the photo a month into his treatment came after dozens of young people gathered under the pontiff’s windows to offer wishes for a quick recovery.
Reporting from Vatican City and Gemelli hospital in Rome
The Vatican on Sunday released the first photo of Pope Francis since he was hospitalized 31 days ago, showing him facing the altar in the small chapel that is part of his private suite at a hospital in Rome.
Francis celebrated Mass with other priests for the first time since he was admitted to the Policlinico A. Gemelli hospital, the Vatican said. He continued his physiotherapy — both motor and respiratory — on Sunday, and he seemed to be “benefiting from it,” the Vatican said.
The pontiff is shown in the photo wearing a purple stole, reflective of this being the season of Lent.
Earlier in the day, balloons in the Vatican colors of yellow and white were held aloft by dozens of children who had gathered in the square outside the hospital and chanted “Papa Francesco” and cheered “Viva la Pace” — hurray for peace.
Many held up signs, hoping that the pope might peek out of the windows of his 10th-floor hospital suite to see their art. They offered encouragement, wishing that the pope get well soon. One boy with a boisterous group of blue-and-yellow capped “castorini,” or beavers, as children too young to be Cub Scouts are known in Italy, held a sign that said “Ciao Papa Cesco, I love you a lot.”
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