Pope from hospital: ‘Thank you for your prayers, I accompany you from here’

“I thank you with all my heart for the prayers you offer for my health from St. Peter’s Square. I accompany you from here. May God bless you, and may the Virgin protect you. Thank you.”

Pope Francis’ message of thanks, recorded in Spanish, for the many testimonies of love and closeness that he has received since being admitted to hospital on 14 February, was broadcast in St. Peter’s Square at 9 pm Rome at the beginning of the Rosary prayer, led on Friday evening by Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, Pro-prefect of the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.

Starting on Monday, 24 February, thousands of believers have joined the Cardinals residing in Rome, along with all collaborators of the Roman Curia and the Diocese of Rome, in St. Peter‘s Square to recite the Holy Rosary for the health of Pope Francis, who is being treated for pneumonia in the Gemelli Hospital.