Page/12 in Italy
From Rome
Pope Francis was discharged on Saturday morning at the Gemelli Polyclinic, where he had been hospitalized since Wednesday due to a respiratory infection or bronchitis. He looked very smiling. Before leaving, he greeted the health personnel and the day before he had visited the children admitted to the Oncology section of the hospital, to whom he gave Easter eggs.
At around 10:35 in the morning he got into the car that was to take him to the Vatican but as soon as he got out, he got out to greet many people who were waiting for his news and shouted “Congratulations, Pope Francis!”, applauding the Pontiff. Among them was a couple who on Friday night lost their daughter Angelica, who suffered from a genetic disease. And both, crying, approached Francisco. “I can not anymore. Pray for us,” she told him. Francisco was moved and hugged his mom and dad to give them strength. And they prayed together. Some photos of that moment that were released will go down in history due to the tremendous emotion they unleashed, because you can see the young parents full of tears and pain, and the heartfelt embrace of the Argentine Pope.
Through tears, Angélica’s father reminded Francisco that he had met the baby and held her in his arms when he visited Casal Bertone, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Rome, in June 2019.
Vatican Information
The Vatican press office reported that “on the morning of April 1, Pope Francis had left the Gemelli Polyclinic” and that he greeted several leaders of the Catholic University and the health personnel who had assisted him during these days. The Pope was discharged after three days of hospitalization and after medical studies confirmed that his health conditions had improved remarkably.
The Vatican also confirmed that Francis will celebrate Palm Sunday in St. Peter’s Square — something that was in doubt — assisted by Argentine cardinal Leonardo Sandri, vice dean of the college of cardinals. Also on the other days of Holy Week, Francisco will participate in the celebrations assisted by a cardinal: he cannot stand for long and the ceremonies are usually long.
with journalists
When he left the Gemelli and went to meet the people who were applauding him, Francisco also spoke with the journalists who were waiting for him. And at that moment he also remembered the health personnel saying that “they are a show”, praising their activity in assisting patients.
Asked about what he had felt on Wednesday before he was admitted and how he felt now, he said that three days ago he felt “just unwell, but I wasn’t afraid.” And when they asked him how he felt, he said: “I’m still alive.” He actually seemed relaxed and optimistic, very good, although he always leaned on his cane: knee problems do not stop.
The Pope told reporters that in the hospital he baptized a little newborn named Miguel Angel. “It was the most beautiful thing,” he commented. To a journalist who asked him if there was a nice moment during his hospitalization, he replied that he was very impressed by the people who work at the hospital. “Being a doctor, help or cleaning staff, in a hospital, requires a certain heroic character and so much tenderness with the sick. You know, we patients are capricious, all of us, capriciousness is something that comes from illness. I admire the people who work in hospitals so much. Yesterday I was with the children and I was able to see how tenderly they took care of them”, Francisco highlighted.
Then the Pope went to the Vatican in the white Fiat 500L driven by his chauffeur. But before arriving at the Vatican, he decided to go to pray in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the center of Rome, to entrust all the sick to the Virgin, especially the children he visited in the Oncology service. Francisco usually goes to this Church to pray before Santa María before leaving or after his international trips. At the end of April he plans a trip to Hungary. We will have to see if his doctors allow it.
Divisions in the Church
These days of illness for Francisco were one more opportunity for the baseless speculations of sectors that oppose the Pontiff and would like him to resign, and thus be able to convene a conclave for the election of a new Pope.
But none of this will happen, at least for now, since the Pope is in good health. One of the people who visited him in the hospital, the Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, director of the Catholic magazine “La Civilta Cattolica”, told a TV channel that “the Pope is in the best of humor and is a person who knows how to deal with a lot of serenity these physical problems ”. Which somehow rules out the possibility of resignation, which Francisco says he has ready, but only in the event that his state of health does not allow him to continue. And as for the opposing sectors within the Church, Sapadaro stressed that “the divisions in the Church do not worry me and they do not worry Francis either” given that “certain oppositions are a positive sign because it means that the Pope’s actions are incisive.” .