“I am facing a time of trial,” Pope Francis said in a deeply moving personal message from his hospital bed for the noonday Angelus on Sunday, March 16, “and I join with so many brothers and sisters who are sick: fragile, at this time, like me. Our bodies are weak but, even like this, nothing can prevent us from loving, praying, giving ourselves, being for each other, in faith, shining signs of hope.”
For the fifth successive Sunday, the 88-year-old pope, who is recovering in the hospital from double pneumonia, has not been able to speak or appear at his window for the Angelus message. Nevertheless, as on the previous four Sundays, he sent a brief written message which the Vatican released at midday.
As always, he began with a greeting, and then offered a brief reflection on the Gospel passage that is read in all Catholic churches this Sunday. “Today, the second Sunday of Lent, the Gospel tells us about the Transfiguration of Jesus (Lk 9:28-36),” he said. “Having climbed to the top of a mountain with Peter, James and John, Jesus immerses Himself in prayer and becomes radiant with light. In this way, He shows the disciples what is hidden behind the gestures He performs in their midst: the light of His infinite love.”
This is the Argentine pope’s 31st day in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, and as America reported yesterday, his doctors said he remains in a stable condition and is making gradual progress, but he has to remain in hospital for some time more.
In today’s message, Pope Francis noted that he sees much light even in the darkness of sickness and suffering, and rejoices as he finds the Lord present there too. “How much light shines, in this sense, in hospitals and places of care! How much loving care illuminates the rooms, the corridors, the clinics, the places where the humblest services are performed! That is why I would like to invite you, today, to join me in praising the Lord, who never abandons us and who, in times of sorrow, places people beside us who reflect a ray of His love.”
A tidal wave of prayer for his recovery has swept across the world ever since he was admitted to the Gemelli Hospital on Feb.14, for a bad infection in his respiratory tract that soon developed into pneumonia in both lungs. The Jesuit pope is aware of this great wave of prayer started by Catholics but quickly joined by other Christians, the followers of other religions and those who profess none; as on the four previous Sundays, so too today he expressed his gratitude: “ I thank you all for your prayers.”
He also thanked those who are caring for him in the hospital and “assist me with such dedication.”
Just before midday today, some 100 children came to pray for his recovery at the statue of St. John Paul II in front of the hospital, accompanied by Enzo Fortunato, O.F.M. Conv., who is the president of the Pontifical Committee for the World Day of Children. Francis thanked them too, saying, “I know that many children are praying for me; some of them came here today to ‘Gemelli’ as a sign of closeness. Thank you, dearest children! The pope loves you and is always waiting to meet you.”
In his Angelus message, Pope Francis also invited people to join him in praying for peace, “especially in the countries wounded by war: tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
Four months ago, in Oct. 2024, he presided over the closing of the second phase of the synod on synodality, and from his hospital bed on March 11, he approved the plan—made public yesterday by Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the secretariat for the synod—for the third phase of the synod process: the implementation of the synod’s Final Document at the church’s local, national and international levels over the next three years, culminating in a first-ever Ecclesial Assembly at the Vatican in October, 2028.
Today, he invited people to pray for this implementation. “Let us also pray for the Church, required to translate into concrete choices the discernment made in the recent Synodal Assembly,” he said. He thanked the General Secretariat of the Synod for the work it will do over the coming three years in accompanying the local churches in this undertaking.
Pope Francis concluded today’s message with this prayer: “May the Virgin Mary keep you and help you to be, like Her, bearers of Christ’s light and peace.”
If he had been at the Vatican this Sunday, Francis would have greeted and blessed the 30,000 runners participating in the annual Rome Marathon as they passed by St. Peter’s Square around midday. In his absence, they remembered him by holding 42 seconds of silent recollection before the marathon started: one second for each of the 42 kms they would run.
