Pope Francis, still recovering from a dangerous bout with bilateral pneumonia and other health issues, blessed an Easter Sunday throng from a balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square in Rome after a brief meeting with Vice President J.D. Vance.
Francis greeted the crowds with a proclamation that ‘Christ, my hope, has risen” before passing on his text to be read by Archbishop Diego Ravelli. An Italian cardinal presided over the Easter morning Mass that drew more than 50,000 faithful gathered to the “flower-filled Saint Peter’s Square,” the Vatican said.
After Mass, the pope entered St. Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile for the first time since surviving double pneumonia. The pope, 88, sat in a raised chair in the vehicle as thousands cheered “viva il papa,” and he stopped at several places along the square.
Dutch florists provided tens of thousands of flowers in an intricate, colorful layout − a tradition in its 39th year.
The Vatican issued a statement saying Francis had met with Vance that morning at the pope’s apartment in Casa Santa Marta. The Vatican press office said the private meeting lasted a few minutes and “offered an opportunity to exchange Easter greetings.”
Vance, second lady Usha Vance and there three children were in Rome for the Easter holiday weekend. Vance, who is Catholic, has clashed with Pope Francis over the Trump administration’s immigration policy. Vance and his family attended a Good Friday service on April 18 at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican complex, although the pontiff did not attend the service.
Vance also met with other top Vatican officials as well as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
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Vance has been a standard-bearer for the Trump administration crackdown on immigration. The pope has described it as a “disgrace” and called the effort a “major crisis” for the U.S.
Vance, in an interview with Fox News in January, said Americans “love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”
In a letter to U.S. bishops on Feb. 10, the pope wote: “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”
Francis battles back from serious illness
For Francis, even the brief balcony appearance is another win in his battle back from a hospital stay of more than five weeks during which at one point physicians considered halting treatment to allow him to die peacefully.
Francis was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 after a weeklong battle with bronchitis. He had been struggling to speak and even breathe during public appearances. His hospitalization included multiple attacks of “acute respiratory insufficiency,” according to daily updates issued by the Vatican.
While hospitalized, the pope was also diagnosed with a polymicrobial infection and then mild renal insufficiency.
‘He might not survive’: Pope Francis’ doctors weighed halting treatment, letting him die
Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera in an interview last month that two weeks into the pope’s hospitalization the medical team had to decide whether to “stop and let him go or force it and try all the drugs and therapies possible.” Alfieri said the pope delegated health care decisions to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal health assistant, who told the team to “try everything, don’t give up.”
The pope was released from the hospital March 23 and has been back to work, albeit on a shortened schedule.
Contributing: Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
