Pope leaves hospital 5 weeks after

Pope Francis greeted and thanked the faithful from a balcony of Rome’s Gemelli hospital Sunday, the first time the 88-year-old has been seen in public since his admission on February 14. “Thank you, everyone”, a weak-sounding Francis said into a microphone, as he sat in a wheelchair waving gently to hundreds of people gathered below, […]

Pope Francis greeted and thanked the faithful from a balcony of Rome’s Gemelli hospital Sunday, the first time the 88-year-old has been seen in public since his admission on February 14.

“Thank you, everyone”, a weak-sounding Francis said into a microphone, as he sat in a wheelchair waving gently to hundreds of people gathered below, and doing the occasional thumbs-up sign.

The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who has spent over five weeks in hospital battling pneumonia, was on the balcony for two minutes then was discharged immediately.

He left by car, waving from the closed window of the front seat as he drove past journalists and could be seen wearing a cannula – a plastic tube tucked into his nostrils which delivers oxygen.

Francis looked tired and thinner than usual. Doctors have said that his health has improved sufficiently for him to go home, but that he still faces a long recovery of at least two months.

The increasingly fragile state of his health has spurred speculation about whether Francis could opt to step down and make way for a successor, as his predecessor Benedict XVI had done.

The Vatican on Wednesday had said he was now breathing without having to use an oxygen mask.

Questions, therefore, remain over who might lead the busy schedule of religious events leading up to Easter – the holiest period in the Christian calendar.

The pope has missed the Angelus prayers – normally recited by the pontiff every Sunday – for five straight weeks.

On Monday, asked by reporters about the speculation of Francis resigning, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin replied: “No, no, no, absolutely not.”