Pope Francis presided over Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square in front of tens of thousands of faithful, just a day after leaving a Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis.
He waved briefly to some 30,000 people as he rode through the square, which was decorated with over 35,000 plants and flowers.
His voice was strong when he opened the Mass but quickly became strained. Despite his hoarseness, Francis read a 15-minute homily, occasionally adding off-the-cuff remarks for emphasis or gesticulating with his hand.
The homily focused on times when people experience “extreme pain, love that fails, is rejected, or is betrayed.” Francis mentioned “rejected or aborted children,” as well as broken marriages, “forms of social exclusion, injustice, and oppression, (and) the solitude of sickness.”
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in the days preceding his crucifixion, which Christians commemorate on Good Friday.
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