Pope appeared at public on Sunday mass day after leaving hospital

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Pope Francis has made his first public appearance after being released from hospital with breathing difficulties, joking with waiting reporters: “I’m still alive”.

Presiding at the mass for Palm Sunday at St Peter’s Square, he recalled the suffering of Jesus and his experience of feeling abandoned, telling the story of a German homeless man, Burkhard Scheffler, who died in November 2022 underneath the colonnade of Saint Peter’s Square, and urging the faithful to find Jesus in the abandoned, in those who are alone.