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Pope Francis made his first public appearance on Sunday following 38 days in care, waving from the window of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
The 88-year-old pontiff was discharged after a severe case of double pneumonia. Doctors said he would need at least two months of rest at the Vatican.
During the past five weeks, Pope Francis experienced “two very critical episodes” where his “life was in danger,” said Sergio Alfieri, one of the doctors treating the pontiff, according to the BBC. Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the pope’s doctrinal chief and a key ally, on Friday said the pontiff would have to relearn how to speak following a month of intensive high-flow oxygen therapy.
While the most dramatic phase of his illness has passed, Francis is expected to be confined within his Vatican residence, the Santa Marta guesthouse, and placed under close medical supervision, potentially even hospice care, according to three people familiar with Vatican planning.
The move follows an internal dispute among the pope’s advisers over whether he should resign — allowing him to rest and potentially return to health — or remain in power to further consolidate his legacy, according to one of the people and a fourth person with knowledge of the matter.
Francis ultimately chose to remain in his post, despite anxieties that his weakened state would see him “ruled by the Curia,” the Vatican bureaucracy, one of them added.
The pope used his prepared written greeting on Sunday to highlight the ongoing Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, calling the humanitarian situation in the region “again very serious” and needing “urgent commitment from the conflicting parties.”
“I call for an immediate halt to the weapons; and for the courage to resume dialogue, so that all hostages may be released and a final ceasefire reached,” he wrote.
