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Pope Francis leaves hospital after over 5 weeks, makes first public appearance
A car carrying the 88-year-old pontiff was accompanied through Rome by a convoy of police vehicles
- PUBLISHED: Sun 23 Mar 2025, 3:49 PM
Pope Francis on Sunday left Rome's Gemelli hospital after five weeks of treatment for pneumonia. The head of the Catholic Church left by car, waving from the closed window of the front seat as he drove past journalists, and could be seen wearing a cannula -- a plastic tube tucked into his nostrils which delivers oxygen.
He made his first public appearance in more than five weeks, waving from a balcony at Rome's Gemelli hospital before his expected discharge from the facility later in the afternoon. The Pope said, 'thank you, everyone' as greets faithful from hospital.
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Francis, 88, went to hospital on February 14 with a severe respiratory infection that became the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy.
The pope's doctors said on Saturday that it would still take "a lot of time" for his aging body to fully heal, and said they had prescribed the pontiff a further two months of rest at the Vatican.