Appearance comes a day after last-minute decision to miss previous service to ‘conserve his health’
Pope Francis baptises a faithful as he presides over the Easter vigil celebration in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.Pope Francis baptises a faithful as he presides over the Easter vigil celebration in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
The Vatican had said Francis skipped the Good Friday procession to ensure his participation in the vigil service Saturday night, which usually lasts about two hours, and Easter Sunday Mass a few hours later. The 87-year-old pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been battling respiratory problems all winter that have made it difficult for him to speak at length. He and the Vatican have said he has had bronchitis, a cold or the flu.
Francis has cancelled some audiences and often asked an aide to read aloud some of his speeches. But the alarm was raised when he ditched his Palm Sunday homily altogether last week and then decided not to preside over the Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum.
In his recently published memoirs, Life: My Story Through History, Francis said he was not suffering from any health problems that would require him to resign and that he still had “many projects to bring to fruition”.
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