Aged 88 and weakened by five weeks battling double pneumonia in hospital, some in the Vatican suspect the head of the Catholic Church knew that his strength was abandoning him.
Although doctors had advised a two-month convalescence, the Argentine pontiff had gradually resumed his activities in the month since he left hospital. The Easter Sunday appearance was the latest of several over the past two weeks.
“He did not die in the hospital cut off from the rest of the world, he had time to come back, give his blessing, experience Easter. We are all impressed.”
Upon his release from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who is know for his stubbornness, wasted no time in returning to work.
“Happy Sunday everyone. Thank you very much,“ he whispered in a weak voice, still wearing a nasal cannula for oxygen.
The day before, he had a brief private audience with Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla, and on April 12, he left the Vatican to pray at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the centre of Rome, where he will be buried.
The Vatican continued to provide occasional updates on the pope’s health. It said Francis was slowly getting better, with his breathing and motor skills improving.
Surrounded day and night by a medical team, he signed documents, wrote letters and prayed.
Although he was forced to delegate the main celebrations for the week to cardinals, the pope headed to a dilapidated and overcrowded Rome prison on Thursday to greet about 70 inmates.
Considered reckless in the eyes of some, the pope’s outings did not surprise those familiar with the headstrong temperament of the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, who always championed the poor, the marginalised, the sick and the elderly.
“He knew that he did not have long left and therefore that he had to do important things.”
Was it one too many? On Sunday, when he appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica for his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (”To the City and the World”) blessing, he appeared exhausted.
Out of breath, he then gave the traditional blessing in Latin.
But the pope had one more surprise at hand.
The final chapter of 12 years of a pontificate that Francis carried out until the very last day.
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