After treatment in the hospital, Pope Francis led the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, focusing in his homily on social exclusion and moments in people’s lives when they experience great pain, failed love, rejection or betrayal.
After treatment in the hospital, Pope Francis led the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, focusing in his homily on social exclusion and moments in people’s lives when they experience great pain, failed love, rejection or betrayal.
Usually the Pope leads the Palm Sunday procession through St. Peter’s Square before the Mass, but this time he arrived by car.
Francis spoke about broken marriages, social exclusion, various forms of injustice and oppression, and loneliness during illness.
Deviating from his prepared speech, the Pope mentioned a homeless man who died alone and abandoned under the colonnade that surrounds St. Peter’s Square. Homeless people tend to stay in this place.
“Entire nations are exploited and abandoned; the poor live on our streets and we look the other way; migrants are no longer faces but numbers; prisoners are rejected, people are written off as problems,” Francis said.
The Pope also thanked the people who prayed for him during his illness.
The 86-year-old Francis left the hospital in Rome on Saturday, where he stayed for three days for treatment of bronchitis.
Palm Sunday ushers in the Holy Week before Easter, and it’s usually a busy week for the Pope.
The Vatican announced on Saturday that Francis will participate in Holy Week ceremonies.
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