He attended the 2.5 hours of mass. Pope Francis presided over the Easter vigil at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Saturday evening, the day after the surprise cancellation of his participation in the Stations of the Cross, which had revived questions about his failing health.
The sovereign pontiff, aged 87, showed no sign of fatigue despite the 2.5 hours of solemn celebration in the presence of 6,000 faithful, before mass on Sunday morning and the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing, broadcast on television.
In a basilica passed from darkness to the light of candles, a rite which symbolizes the Resurrection of Christ among Catholics, Francis delivered a ten-minute homily in Italian, without particular difficulty.
He spoke out against the “stones of death,” “the walls of selfishness and indifference,” and “all aspirations for peace shattered by the cruelty of hatred and the ferocity of war.” .
He blessed the faithful
After the ceremony, he took the time to go back and forth in the aisle of the basilica in a wheelchair, smiling, greeting and energetically blessing the faithful massed against the barriers, many of whom extended their hands to him or photographed him with their smartphones. , in a warm atmosphere.
His presence was confirmed by the Vatican at midday, despite the cancellation on Friday evening, at the last minute, of his visit to the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum “to preserve his health”.
This cancellation and the laconic communication from the Vatican helped to rekindle questions about the failing health of Jorge Bergoglio.
The Argentine Jesuit had already canceled his participation in the “Via Crucis” in 2023, but this decision followed a three-day hospitalization for bronchitis and had been communicated in advance.
A central pillar of the Catholic calendar, Holy Week, which involves numerous ceremonies ending with Easter, can be compared to a marathon for an octogenarian who has been traveling in a wheelchair for two years.
In recent days, the Bishop of Rome had honored his commitments to the point of presiding as planned over the office of the Passion of Christ for nearly two hours on Friday afternoon.
But he recently appeared tired and had been forced on several occasions to delegate the reading of his speeches, citing bronchitis, for which he had undergone examinations in a hospital in Rome at the end of February. He had also abandoned the reading of his Palm Sunday homily, without explanation.
Despite a major abdominal operation in 2023, the pope, who never takes vacation, continues to submit to a frantic pace at the Vatican, where he can receive around ten interlocutors in a morning.
Francis has always left “the door open” to a possible renunciation, in line with his predecessor Benedict XVI. But in an autobiography published in mid-March, he reiterated that he had no “serious reason” to renounce his office, a “remote hypothesis” which would only be justified in the event of a “serious physical impediment”.