2024-03-31 21:28:57
Pope Francis presided over the Easter Sunday mass in St. Peter’s Square before more than 30,000 people, after he decided on Friday not to go to the Colosseum in Rome for the Stations of the Cross to take care of his health.
The Argentine pontiff appeared in good shape, as he did this Saturday, when he presided over the Easter Vigil mass, a ceremony that lasted almost three hours, and after Sunday’s ceremony he greeted the faithful who came to Saint Peter’s in a popemobile. In St. Peter’s Square, there were more than 350 religious including cardinals, bishops and priests to concelebrate with the pope.
The atrium of the basilica was decorated with tens of thousands of flowers thanks to the contribution of Dutch florists and the collaboration of the Garden and Environment Service workers.
After the ceremony, in which there was no homily, Francis will appear at noon at the central Lodge of St. Peter’s Basilica, from where he will pronounce the Easter message and give the Urbi et Orbi Blessing.
Last Friday, a few minutes before the start of the Stations of the Cross, the Vatican press office reported that “to safeguard health before tomorrow’s vigil and the Holy Mass on Easter Sunday,” Francis would follow the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum from his residence, the Casa Santa Marta, which caused concern for the pontiff’s health to grow.
Last year, Francis, who had just left the hospital due to bronchitis, did not go to the Colosseum on the recommendation of the doctors, and this was surely the case on this occasion as well, after the two-hour celebration of the Passion of the Lord on the afternoon of yesterday and the cold and humidity in the Roman night.
Francis, 87, who has suffered from respiratory problems in recent times, presided, apparently without problems, at the Holy Thursday mass in a women’s prison in Rome and this Friday at the ceremony of the passion of Christ in St. Peter’s Basilica. .
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