Ailing pope surprises pilgrims during Jubilee of the sick

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With thousands of infirmed people and those who care for them gathered in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis, seated in a wheelchair and wearing a nasal cannula, made an unexpected appearance to greet the crowd.

"A happy Sunday to you all, many thanks!" the pope said to them with a strained voice.

Appearing at the end of the closing Mass of the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers April 6, the pope shocked the thousands gathered in the square who broke out in cheers upon seeing his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, wheel him out of St. Peter's Basilica and into the square.

After his brief greeting, doctors in white lab coats, some wearing red clown noses, and infirmed people in wheelchairs applauded as Pope Francis was taken through the crowd to leave the square.

The appearance marks the first time Pope Francis had been seen in public since he was discharged from Rome's Gemelli hospital March 23 after more than five weeks of treatment for breathing difficulties and double pneumonia.

Prior to appearing in the square, Pope Francis went to confession in St. Peter's Basilica and passed through the Holy Door, the Vatican press office said.

Although the pope did not attend the entirety of the Mass, his spiritual presence was made tangible through the large cloth banner bearing his papal coat of arms that hung from the central balcony of the basilica. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, presided over the Mass as the pope's delegate and read the pope's homily.

Even amid pain, illness and human fragility, "God does not leave us alone and, if we abandon ourselves to him precisely where our strength fails, we can experience the consolation of his presence," the pope wrote. "By becoming man, he wanted to share our weakness in everything. He knows what it is to suffer."

Organizers expected some 20,000 pilgrims to come to Rome for the Jubilee celebration, including patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and other health care workers from more than 90 countries.

Doctors and infirmed people were seated in the front rows for the Mass; health care workers wearing white lab coats served as lectors during the liturgy.

In his homily, the pope emphasized that the experience of illness, though painful, can become "a school in which we learn each day to love and to let ourselves be loved, without being demanding or pushing back, without regrets and without despair."

The pope urged society not to marginalize the weak and vulnerable but to embrace them as essential members of the community, quoting Pope Benedict XVI who said that a society unable to accept its suffering members "is a cruel and inhuman society."

In his written message to accompany the Angelus, published by the Vatican after the Mass, Pope Francis reflected on his personal experience of illness.

"During my hospitalization, even now in my convalescence I feel the 'finger of God' and experience his caring touch," he wrote. "On the day of the Jubilee of the sick and the world of health care, I ask the Lord that this touch of his love may reach those who suffer and encourage those who care for them."

He expressed deep gratitude for health professionals, "who are not always helped to work in adequate conditions and are sometimes even victims of aggression," calling for resources to be " invested in treatment and research, so that health systems are inclusive and attentive to the most fragile and the poorest."

The pope also renewed his appeal for peace in the world, urging the international community to act with urgency in places devastated by war.

"May the weapons be silenced and dialogue resumed; may all the hostages be freed and aid brought to the population," he said, naming Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Congo, Myanmar and Haiti among the suffering regions.