(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 13.04.2025).- During the second week of April we have seen more public appearances of the Pope than in the last two months of 2025 together. The first time he was seen was at the end of the Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Sick, on Sunday, April 6. Pope Francis entered the Square after having gone to Confession and crossed the Holy Door. His motor difficulty was evident: he couldn’t raise his arms and had nasal cannulas.
The cannulas disappeared, at least in the carefully selected photo, in the private audience of Wednesday, April 9 to the King and Queen of England, which was the Pontiff’s second appearance.
The following day, April 10, around 1:00 pm the Holy Father was seen in a very informal manner (without a cassock, unkempt in his appearance, dishevelled and barely covered with a kind of poncho) inside St. Peter’s Basilica, where he wanted to go to pray at the tomb of Pope Pius X. As far as is known, the Pope was being pushed around in a wheelchair, inside his residence, when he expressed his desire to go and pray at the Basilica. The fact that he was dressed as he was seems to be due to the difficulty in dressing him, since his motor difficulty is evident.
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Two days later, on Saturday, April 12, the Pope wished to visit the Basilica of Saint Mary Major to take flowers to the Virgin and pray before the Salus Populi Romani image.
Finally, at the end of the Palm Sunday Mass, Pope Francis entered Saint Peter’s Square and greeted those present, saying “Happy Palm Sunday and Happy Holy Week!”
On Palm Sunday, Pope Francis prays at the tomb of St. Peter
At the end of the Palm Sunday Mass, Pope Francis joined the pilgrims. Then, returning to the Basilica, he paused to pray at the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle and at the tombs of Benedict XV and Pius X. pic.twitter.com/Ny6oDgvGw1
— ZenitEnglish (@zenitenglish) April 13, 2025
All these appearances have raised the legitimate questions: Is the Pope well again? Had the doctors not prescribed two months of rest? In fact, the doctors did prescribe two months of rest, and the Pope has only complied with this for three weeks. In other words, he still has five weeks of convalescence left.
In a recent interview with RAI, Italy’s main television channel, Sergio Alfieri, the Doctor who attended the Pontiff, said: “The Pope is no longer sick. When he was hospitalized, his immune system was suppressed, and that’s why he was having problems. Now he’s no longer immunosuppressed, and he’s not sick. He’s convalescing. He’s only been here for two weeks. We hope he respects the other six.”
And in regard to the Holy Father’s public appearances, Dr Alfieri said:
«We know him. At this point, when the conditions are right, he’ll slowly recover. Now a tug-of-war will begin between him, who increasingly wants to be in the middle of the people, and the doctors, who don’t want to block him, but we do want him to observe his convalescence.»
Referring to the surprise reappearance at the end of Mass on Sunday, April 6, he added: «He has done this surprise to show that not only has he returned to his home, Santa Marta, but also to his people, among the people. He does not hide his fragility, to show that sometimes he needs these low-dose oxygen cannulas for longer periods of time.»
On Friday, April 11, the Holy See Press Office spokesman gave a briefing to the accredited press on the Pope’s health: it was noted that Pope Francis’s clinical condition is stable, with gradual improvements in his motor skills and breathing. It was pointed out that the Pope manages to avoid using oxygen for extended periods and uses high-flow oxygen «on a residual basis» and «for therapeutic purposes» (this explains why he appears without oxygen in the photo of the audience with the English King and Queen). Blood tests have also come back positive, and improvements were also observed in lung auscultation.
