Pope Francis made a surprise detour on his way home after five weeks of hospitalisation with a serious bout of pneumonia, visiting his favourite basilica to lay flowers.
The 88-year-old pontiff, requiring supplemental oxygen via nasal tubes, was driven in his Fiat 500L through the Perugino gate to the Vatican, marking a welcome return after anxieties about his health and potential resignation.
His motorcade, en route from Gemelli hospital, unexpectedly diverted to St Mary Major basilica, home to a cherished icon of the Madonna. This basilica is a place of personal significance for the Pope, who traditionally visits it to pray after trips abroad.
Remaining in his car, he presented a bouquet of flowers to be placed before the Salus populi Romani icon, a Byzantine-style painting deeply revered by Romans.
The icon holds such importance for Francis that he has reportedly chosen the basilica as his final resting place.
The detour through Rome followed the Pope's first public appearance in five weeks, where he offered a brief blessing and a thumbs-up from a hospital balcony.
Hundreds had gathered to witness his departure, observing a seemingly weakened Francis.
“I see this woman with the yellow flowers. Brava!” Francis said in a breathless voice. He gave a weak sign of the cross before being wheeled back inside.
Chants of “Viva il papa!” and “Papa Francesco” erupted from the crowd, which included patients who had been wheeled outside just to catch his brief appearance.
Doctors say Francis needs two months of rest and convalescence at the Vatican, during which he should refrain from meeting with big groups of people or exerting himself. But they said he should be able to resume all his normal activities eventually.
His return home came after the longest hospitalisation of his 12-year papacy and the second-longest in recent papal history.
At the Vatican, where a Holy Year is under way, pilgrims cheered and applauded when Francis's greeting from Gemelli was broadcast live on giant TV screens in St Peter's Square.
“For me it was an important emotional experience to see him, because many people were waiting for this moment,” said Sister Luisa Jimènez, a nun from Francis’ native Argentina.
Another nun from the same order, Colombian Sister Angel Bernal Amparo, expressed concern, given his bloating and inability to speak much.
“He didn’t look well,” she said. "He couldn’t (talk) and I realised it was because of his breathing and, well, he left right there. But I was glad to have seen him.”
No special arrangements have been made at the Domus Santa Marta, the Vatican hotel where Francis lives in a two-room suite on the second floor next to the basilica.
He will have supplemental oxygen and 24-hour medical care as needed, although his personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone, said he hoped Francis would progressively need less and less assistance breathing as his lungs recover.
The Argentine pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was admitted to Gemelli on February 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened.
Doctors first diagnosed a complex bacterial, viral and fungal respiratory tract infection and soon thereafter, pneumonia in both lungs.
Blood tests showed signs of anaemia, low blood platelets and the onset of kidney failure, all of which later resolved after two blood transfusions.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the medical and surgical chief at Gemelli who coordinated Francis’ medical team, stressed that not all patients who develop such a severe cases of double pneumonia survive, much less are released from the hospital.
He said Francis’s life was at risk twice, during two acute respiratory crises, and that the pope at the time understandably lost his typical good sense of humour.
“But one morning we went to listen to his lungs and we asked him how he was doing. When he replied, ‘I’m still alive,’ we knew he was OK and had gotten his good humor back,” he told a news conference late Saturday.
Alfieri said that Francis was still having trouble speaking due to the damage to his lungs and respiratory muscles. But he said such problems were normal, especially in older patients, and predicted his voice would eventually return.
Francis is also continuing to take medication to treat a more minor respiratory infection.
